Illinois has earned a B in all five of the
Grading State Disclosure assessments conducted
since 2003. Gains made in the accessibility
category were offset by a lower grade in
the usability category, and Illinois slipped
from 9th in 2007 to 14th in the overall rankings
this year.
Illinois’s
disclosure law earned a C and the 30th
ranking in this area in 2008. Candidates
are required to itemize contributions of
$150 or more, with occupation and employer
data disclosed for those giving more than
$500. Expenditures of more than $150 are
also reported, but subvendor information
is not. Independent expenditures made in
the two months prior to an election must
be disclosed, but independent expenditures
made outside of that timeframe are not reported.
Illinois earned an A+ and a number one ranking
in the electronic filing category again in
2008, as both statewide and legislative candidates
who raise or spend $10,000 must file electronically.
To assist filers, the State Board of Elections
archives videos of informative campaign disclosure
seminars online.
Illinois’s
Disclosure Content Accessibility grade
improved to an A and a top ten ranking
in 2008, up from a B+ and 14th in 2007.
The State Board of Elections debuted a
new web site that has preserved the strengths
of the previous site while introducing
new tools for accessing disclosure data.
Site visitors can browse electronically-filed
reports, or take advantage of searchable
databases of contributions and expenditures
that are among the best in the nation.
The new site retains the previous site’s
excellent database searching and sorting
options, and users can now also download
search results for offline analysis. Another
nice feature found within the databases
is that search results are preceded by
summary information that includes the total
number of transactions returned, as well
as the cumulative total of the results.
The public can also review summary data
from paper-filed reports that has been
data-entered by agency staff.
While
the new State Board of Elections site is
clean and easy to navigate, the state dropped
from a B+ to a B- since its debut primarily
due to the 2008 usability test. Usability
testers had a more difficult time navigating
to the disclosure site from the state of
Illinois’s homepage than testers
did in 2007, which speaks more to issues
with the state’s web site than the
disclosure agency’s site. The disclosure
site itself has been made easier to navigate
through the use of tabs, graphics and lists
of the “Most Popular” features
on the site. The site features excellent
contextual information, such as its annual “Money
and Elections in Illinois” reports
that summarize state-level candidate campaign
financing, a glossary of common campaign
disclosure terms, and a clear description
of the data available online. Providing basic
instructions for using the database search
features would further add to the usability
of the disclosure site.
→ Quick
Fix: Provide instructions for
using the searchable databases
of contributions and expenditures.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: The
newly redesigned State Board of Elections
web site is clear and well organized with
both icons and text to help visitors navigate
the site. View
image
