Tennessee's overall F grade and low rank in the study can be
attributed to a Campaign Disclosure Law that is deficient in
a number of important areas, a lack of electronic filing and
a near-bottom rank in the category of accessibility to campaign
finance data.
The
law requires state-level candidates in Tennessee to file one
statement before each election, and annual statements in non-election
years. Candidates must disclose details about
contributors who give more than $100, but contributors' occupations
and employers do not have to be reported. Last-minute
contributions over $5,000 must be disclosed within 72 hours. Expenditures
greater than $100 must be reported, but subvendor information
(such as a breakdown of credit card expenses) is not required. Independent
expenditures are reported, but last-minute independent
expenditures are not disclosed before an election.
Accessing
campaign finance records in Tennessee is extremely difficult,
and there are no filings available on the official disclosure
web site. The absence of data is due to a provision
of Tennessee's disclosure law that requires people who want to
view campaign finance records to first complete a form stating
their name, address, home and business phone numbers, driver's
license number, and name of the candidate whose records they
wish to view. These forms are collected by the Registry
of Election Finance and made available to the elected officials
whose reports have been accessed.
Tennessee
is the only state in the nation with such a system for
inspecting or obtaining copies of campaign finance records,
and many see the “inspection notice provision” as
a major barrier to data accessibility. The Registry
of Election Finance itself in its 2002 annual report
to the governor and general assembly recognized that the effect
of the provision has been “to deter some citizens from
reviewing elected officials' reports” and has urged a change
in the law.
The
state avoids the rank of 50 for Disclosure Content Accessibility
only because the Registry publishes a report online that
includes the total amounts raised and spent by all statewide
and legislative candidates, giving site visitors at least one
tool for gaining a better understanding of money trends in
Tennessee politics. Additionally,
the law requires the agency to data-enter the contents
of the campaign filings, so the records do eventually
end up in an electronic format and a disk is available for
purchase, provided the inspection form is completed.
Relative
to other states, Tennessee has good contextual information
on its disclosure web site, including an explanation of the
campaign finance requirements in the state, the text of the
disclosure law, and a comprehensive list of candidates. The
D grade in the combined contextual and technical usability
category reflects the minimal amount of campaign finance data
on the site, and a mid-range score in the usability testing.
