Florida
has improved in all four Grading State
Disclosure categories – most
significantly in the area of web site usability – and
now ranks third in the nation, behind only
Washington and California.
Florida
law requires candidates to file quarterly
statements in both non-election and election
years, and two statements before each
election. Details about
contributors must be reported, including
occupation, but not employer, for contributions
of more than $100. Candidates must
report details, including subvendor information,
about all expenditures. Independent
expenditures must be reported; last-minute
independent expenditures are prohibited
by law. All candidates who file with
the Department of State must submit reports
electronically, and routine waivers are
no longer permitted, which accounts for
Florida’s improved Electronic Filing
grade.
Florida
does an excellent job of making campaign
finance information available to the
public. The comprehensive searchable
databases of contributions and expenditures
on the Department of State web site can
serve as a model for other states, and
include a number of innovative features
and search options, as described in Grading
State Disclosure 2003. The site also
includes an interface for viewing each
candidate’s filing history and for
browsing complete filings, rather than
searching for specific bits of information. All
campaign finance data for candidates is
posted on the disclosure agency’s
web site within three days of being filed.
Florida
has improved dramatically in Online Contextual
and Technical Usability, moving from
an F to a B-, due in part to significant
improvement in the state’s usability
testing scores and the fact that it became
easier to locate the disclosure site from
the main Florida web site. The state
continues to provide a detailed “data
history” section, addressing such
topics as data quality, what type of information
the database contains, whose records are
in the system, and when records are posted. The
search interface can be used to generate
a list of all candidates for a particular
office and the total amounts raised by
each, although site visitors may overlook
this feature because nothing indicates
the database can be used to generate such
a list.
