Louisiana’s
rank improved slightly in 2004, but its
overall grade remained in the C range
and its web site usability grade is a
D+, indicating there is still room for
improvement in the state.
Louisiana
requires candidates to file annual reports
in non-election years, four reports before
a primary election and one report before
a general election. The
names and addresses of all contributors,
but not their occupations and employers,
must be disclosed. Disclosure of
expenditure information, including independent
expenditures, is strong in Louisiana. Candidates
must disclose last-minute contributions
and independent expenditures prior to the
election. Electronic filing is required
for statewide candidates who reach a threshold
of $50,000, and is voluntary for legislative
candidates.
Louisiana’s Disclosure Content Accessibility
rank improved in 2004, and the Board of
Ethics web site does feature searchable
campaign finance databases, but the significant
technical problems with those systems described
in Grading State Disclosure 2003 still
present a barrier for people searching
for data online. While all reports
are available on the site, the contributions
and expenditures databases include only
electronically filed reports, which the
agency estimated to be about ten percent
of the filings. Access to records
filed on paper is more difficult; getting
copies from the agency costs $.25 per page
and takes one week, which is also how long
it takes the Board of Ethics to scan and
post those records online. Louisiana’s
strength in Disclosure Content Accessibility
is that the basic structure of its databases
is good – now it just needs to fine-tune
those systems and work to populate them
with a larger percentage of candidates’ reports.
Louisiana
shows the most room for improvement in
the area of Online Contextual and Technical
Usability, and is lacking basic information
necessary to give people a better overall
picture of disclosure in the state. For
example, there is no chart showing the
total amounts raised and spent by state
candidates, and the site does not feature
a list of candidates. It can be difficult
to locate the Board of Ethics web site
from the main state homepage, and the site
lacks a thorough explanation of whose records
are available there. In spite of
the weaknesses of the site, Louisiana’s
usability testing score improved in 2004. Strengths
in this category include comprehensive
information about campaign finance restrictions
and disclosure requirements, good terminology,
and clear labeling of amended reports.
