Hawkins says the commission will not hesitate to penalize candidates if they violate the rules.
"Last year, rules which should have been enforced weren't enforced, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen again," he says.
This year, the commission is forbidding candidates from using table tents or mail drops in the campaign, in the hopes that no questions will arise about whether candidates had the proper authorization.
"We're getting rid of anything that we knew, based on past experience, to be very capricious in terms of permission," Darling says.
The commission is also making all decisions collectively, instead of assigning a single commissioner to make all the decisions for a campaign.
"There won't be a situation where someone is seen to be an advocate or policeman of one campaign," Darling says.
Darling and Hawkins say that, because of their involvement in the impeachment process, they expect that candidates will be extra careful about following the rules.
"[Almost] all of this year's candidates were all involved...last year and saw that Sterling and I really disagreed with what the election commission did and know that we are not going to let anyone get away with anything," Hawkins says.