Despite its low rank and grade, Arkansas has a stronger campaign
finance disclosure law than many other states; its overall grade
is a reflection of a lack of electronic filing, poor accessibility
of campaign finance information and poor web site usability.
Arkansas
requires candidates to file campaign finance reports
quarterly in non-election years and monthly in election years. Candidates
must file detailed contributor information, including occupation
and employer, for contributions of $50 or more and detailed expenditure
information for payments of $100 or more, although subvendor
information is not required. Last-minute contributions
do not have to be reported prior to an election. Independent
expenditures must be reported, but last-minute independent
expenditures are not required to be reported before an
election.
Arkansas
does not have an electronic filing program, but the Secretary
of State scans all campaign finance reports and posts
them on its web site in a PDF format. The state does
a good job of posting campaign finance data in a timely
manner, within a few days of the filing deadline, and
has reports on its site dating back to 1996. However,
many of the campaign finance reports are of poor quality
and often hard to read – some files are difficult to
download and others have small fonts, sloppy handwriting or
blurry images – making it hard to access the information. There
are no searchable databases of contributions or expenditures,
limiting the public's ability to analyze campaign finance information
and compare the activity of candidates.
The
usability of Arkansas' web site is also very weak. The
state could improve the contextual information on the site, including
lists of the total amounts raised and spent by state candidates,
a better explanation of campaign finance restrictions in the
state, and details about what records can be found on the web
site and how the site can be used. It is also very hard
to locate the disclosure agency's site from the state home
page.
