Significant
improvement in the area of Disclosure
Content Accessibility has improved Alaska’s
overall grade and rank, but an average
campaign disclosure law and a lack of
mandatory electronic filing keep the
state in the C range.
Alaska
law requires candidates to file campaign
finance reports once during non-election
years and twice before an election. Candidates
must provide detailed information about
all contributors, including occupation
and employer for those who give $100 or
more. Independent expenditures must
be reported within ten days of being made,
but last-minute independent expenditures
are not reported until after the election. Alaska’s
electronic filing program remains voluntary
for statewide and legislative candidates;
the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC)
says the program is adequately funded this
year, and they are working on developing
a web-based filing system.
Accessibility
of campaign finance data in Alaska has
advanced significantly, resulting in
a B in the Disclosure Content Accessibility
category, an improvement over last year’s
D. The contributions database can
now be searched by zip code and employer,
although still not by date (one can limit
the search to a particular year, but cannot
search by exact date.) The biggest
change is the addition of an expenditures
database that allows searches by vendor
name and expenditure purpose, but not amount
or date. Both databases are comprehensive
and contain data going back to 1998. To
further improve access to disclosure data,
the agency could add the missing fields
to the search interfaces, improve ease
of access to paper records, and shorten
the amount of time it takes for records
to be posted online.
Alaska’s biggest strength is still
the usability of its disclosure web site,
which again ranked third in the country. The
APOC web site was upgraded in 2004, and
continues to offer a wealth of contextual
information. Most importantly, the
agency has added current summary information
to the site, available through the “overview” menu,
that gives visitors quick access to total
amounts raised and spent by state-level
candidates. Historical overviews
are also available. If the state
wanted to raise its grade from a B+ to
an A, it could provide more detailed instructions
for how to use the databases, improve terminology
on the site, and work to get the APOC site
listed more prominently on the State of
Alaska web site.
Disclosure Agency: Alaska Public Offices Commission
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.state.ak.us/apoc/index.htm
