Though
there have been improvements, North Dakota’s campaign disclosure law
is still the worst in the country, making
it difficult for the state to move beyond
its overall F. The Secretary of State’s
office has made some changes to its web
site, most notably in the area of Disclosure
Content Accessibility, and more are expected. If
Grading State Disclosure measured “Effort”,
North Dakota would have an A in that category.
North
Dakota made some changes to its campaign
disclosure law in 2003, but the state’s law score was so low to begin
with that the improvements were not enough
to boost its last place rank in this area. Candidates
file annually and once before each election,
and must disclose information about contributors
who give more than $200. The law
changed to require reporting of occupation
and employer, but only for those giving
$5,000 or more, which excludes the majority
of contributors. More significant
is the new requirement for disclosure of
in-kind contributions. Last-minute
contributions of $500 are reported prior
to the election, but there is still no
disclosure at all of loans, expenditures,
and independent expenditures. An
electronic filing system is under construction.
Substantial
progress in the area of access to campaign
finance records caused a jump in North
Dakota’s grade in this category
from an F to a D. Perhaps more telling
is the increase in its rank from 43 to
25. The Secretary of State’s
web site now features a database of contributions
that can be searched across all filers
by donor name and zip code, includes “smart
search” features, and offers results
in either an HTML display or a downloadable
file. It is also now possible to
browse an index of a particular candidate’s
reports. The addition of a searchable
database of expenditures would further
enhance access to records in North Dakota.
North
Dakota’s score in the usability
testing dropped down into the average range
(from a top score last year), which was
the main reason the state’s Online
Contextual and Technical Usability grade
fell from a C to a D in 2004. Strengths
in web site usability are the extensive
amount of information concerning the state’s
campaign finance restrictions and disclosure
requirements, a complete candidate list,
and the use of clear terminology throughout
the site. A simple list of
candidates’ total fundraising amounts,
and the labeling of reporting periods in
browsable campaign finance reports, would
help improve the contextual usability of
the Secretary of State’s web site.
