The
quality of Oklahoma’s campaign
disclosure web site improved significantly
in 2004, although the changes have barely
impacted the state’s overall grade,
which moved up to a C- from last year’s
D+. Oklahoma again earned an overall
rank of 19 for its campaign disclosure
program.
Oklahoma
law requires candidates to file quarterly
reports in both election and non-election
years, plus one report before each election. Candidates must disclose
detailed information about contributors
who give more than $50, including occupation
and employer. Last-minute contributions
of $500 or more must be reported within
24 hours. All expenditures must be
reported, including detailed subvendor
information. Independent expenditures
must be disclosed as well, and last-minute
independent expenditures of $500 or more
must be reported prior to the election. The
Ethics Commission is considering reinstating
mandatory electronic filing beginning in
2005, but for now the program is voluntary.
Oklahoma
debuted a new campaign disclosure web
site in 2004, called OkCIDS, which is
tied to an updated electronic filing
system and replaced the state’s original
online disclosure database. While
the upgrade did not improve Oklahoma’s
Disclosure Content Accessibility grade – the
old system also satisfied the project’s
criteria for database functionality and
received full credit – the OkCIDS
web site is a big improvement in both design
and technical operation. The new
database is still not comprehensive, however;
while there are more campaign filings in
the OkCIDS system than were previously
available, paper filers’ information
is limited to summary figures, and complete
paper-filed reports are only accessible
through the Oklahoma Ethics Commission
office.
Oklahoma
made no progress in the area of Online
Contextual and Technical Usability in
2004, perhaps because its focus was on
changes to the electronic filing process
and improvements in the area of accessibility
to campaign data. The state’s
grade and rank in the web site usability
category are still very low. While
there are now more complete instructions
for viewing campaign filings online, the
disclosure web site is still lacking summary
information comparing total amounts raised
and spent by different filers, a comprehensive
list of candidates, and a detailed description
of whose records are available in the OkCIDS
database.
