While
significant changes were made to South
Carolina’s campaign finance
law in 2003, the most important disclosure
provisions do not go into effect until
November 2004 and therefore did not give
the state the boost that was expected to
have come in this year’s Grading
State Disclosure report. The state
again ranks second from the bottom, with
an overall F.
Beginning
this fall, candidates in South Carolina
will be required to file quarterly reports
in both election and non-election years,
plus one report prior to each election. Candidates
must file detailed information about campaign
contributors, including a person’s
occupation (but not employer) after November
2004. Details about expenditures,
including subvendor information, are reported,
and the state requires the disclosure of
independent expenditures. Disclosure
of last-minute contributions and independent
expenditures is not required, which is
a significant weakness in the state’s
law. Although the 2003 campaign reform
bill requires the State Ethics Commission
to establish an electronic filing program,
this has not yet happened; the agency describes
the implementation of electronic filing
as a “continued key strategic goal.”
Not
surprisingly, South Carolina again ranked
50th in the nation in Disclosure Content
Accessibility, primarily because there
is still no campaign finance data available
on the State Ethics Commission web site. Contributing to the F in
this category is the fact that access to
records on paper is also weak. Records
can be requested in person or by mail only,
at a cost of $.50 per page, and processing
public requests for paper records can take
a while, according to the agency.
South
Carolina’s web site usability
is also poor compared to other states. It
ranked 48th in Online Contextual and Technical
Usability, lagging behind every state except
Montana and New Hampshire. While
the site uses clear terminology and provides
good information about the state’s
disclosure requirements and campaign finance
restrictions, other important information
is lacking. South Carolina’s
disclosure web site once again failed the
usability test, due to a lack of campaign
finance reports online.
