Colorado
has made few changes to its disclosure
program in the past year. Its strengths
still lie in the areas of Campaign Disclosure
Law and Disclosure Content Accessibility;
a lack of progress in web site usability,
and a poorly funded, voluntary electronic
filing program are the cause of its overall
C- grade.
Colorado’s disclosure law requires
candidates to file quarterly campaign finance
statements in non-election years and four
reports before each election. Candidates
must disclose detailed information about
contributors who give $20 or more, along
with contributor’s occupation and
employer for those who give $100 or more. Last-minute
contributions and independent expenditures
must be reported before an election. Weaknesses
in the law include enforcement and disclosure
of loan details. Colorado has voluntary
electronic filing, but there is not adequate
funding for the program.
Although
Colorado’s grade in the
Accessibility category improved slightly,
its rank dropped because other states have
made more progress in this area. The
Secretary of State’s web site offers
comprehensive searchable databases of contributions
and expenditures, but those systems are
still missing a few important search fields,
including contributor’s zip code
and employer, and expenditure purpose. The
site also features browsable versions of
both electronically filed and paper-filed
reports, and most data is online within
two days of being filed. Access to
records in formats other than on the Internet,
such as on paper or CD-Rom, could be improved,
with high cost being an issue in both cases.
Lack
of contextual information and poor terminology
online are still big problems for Colorado. While the disclosure
web site does provide visitors with information
about the state’s campaign finance
law and restrictions, it does not adequately
describe which records are available online,
and also does not provide a simple overview
of candidate spending and fundraising totals. Terminology
could be improved. For example, a
link called “File and Search Campaign
Finance Documents” and another link
called “Campaign Finance Filing and
Inquiry” both go to the same report
search page, but from different sections
of the web site. Fixing those kinds
of inconsistencies would make the site
easier to navigate. Colorado’s
usability testing scores improved slightly,
likely because it became easier to locate
the disclosure site from the main state
site.
