Although Alaska has some good information on its web site
and does very well when compared to many other states, it
has room to improve its campaign finance disclosure program,
particularly in Electronic Filing and Disclosure Content Accessibility.
Alaska's law requires candidates to file campaign finance
reports once during non-election years and two times before
an election. Candidates must provide detailed information
about contributors, including his or her occupation and employer,
for those who give $100 or more. As of September 14,
2003, a new state law removes the $100 threshold and requires
all contributions to be itemized. Independent expenditures
must be reported within ten days of being made, but late independent
expenditures (made within ten days preceding an election)
are not reported until after the election. Although
Alaska has an electronic filing program, it is voluntary for
statewide and legislative candidates and the program is not
adequately funded.
Alaska does a fair job of making campaign finance disclosure
information available to the public, but it could do better. While
the state publishes all campaign finance reports on its disclosure
web site (reports from candidates who do not file electronically
are data-entered by staff), accessibility to this data could
be improved. Alaska does feature a searchable database
of contributions on its web site, but it is somewhat confusing
to use because there are two ways to do searches; an expanded
search in which it is possible to search by donor, amount
and date, but not by a contributor's employer or zip code,
and a more limited search in which one can only search by
contributor. An explanation of the differences between
the two searches would be helpful. Other drawbacks
include campaign finance reports that are not always available
in a timely manner, a lack of downloadable files and no searchable
database of expenditures.
Alaska's
biggest strength lies in the usability of its web site – it
ranked third in the nation in this category. The state
provides a good explanation of its laws governing campaign
finance disclosure and restrictions. The site also offers
some unique overview information, including lists of
delinquent and unpublished campaign finance reports and
overall statistics about campaign finance reporting in the
state. While the site features overviews of campaign financing
activity for past elections, there are no such overviews
for elections after 1999. Usability testers found the site
easy to use, with six out of six locating the disclosure
web site, and reporting the same number for total amounts
received by candidates for governor.
