Virginia
received the exact same overall grade
and rank in Grading State Disclosure
2004 as it received in 2003, in spite
of a few changes – both positive and
negative – to its campaign finance
disclosure program.
Under
Virginia law, candidates must file two
statements in non-election years, two
statements before the primary, and four
before the general election. Candidates
must report detailed information about
contributors who give more than $100, including
occupation and employer. Last-minute
contributions must be disclosed prior to
the election. All expenditure information
must be reported, including some subvendor
details. Independent expenditures
must be reported, but last-minute independent
expenditures do not have to be disclosed
prior to an election. Electronic
filing is mandatory for statewide candidates
and voluntary for legislative candidates,
and the Virginia State Board of Elections
says it now has adequate funding for the
program.
Virginia
performs worst in the area of Disclosure
Content Accessibility, and again received
an F in that category. Although
the Board of Elections disclosure web site
is comprehensive, and records for both
electronic filers and paper filers are
posted online quickly, the site still does
not offer a functioning database for searching
itemized contributions or expenditures. What
it does offer is a searchable database
of last-minute contributions, but that
system is limited to contributions of more
than $500 made within 13 days of the election,
and does not include the contribution and
expenditure data filed in regular pre-election
reports. Changes are in the works,
however, and the Board of Elections says
it will be debuting a more user-friendly
and enhanced search engine in the near
future.
While
there is a fair amount of contextual
information on Virginia’s disclosure
web site, the state’s Online Contextual
and Technical Usability grade suffers due
to a lack of summary campaign finance information
and an average usability testing score. Comprehensive
information about Virginia’s disclosure
requirements, a list of candidates including
office and party affiliation, and adequate
information about whose records can be
viewed on the Internet are the site’s
strong points. The disclosure agency’s
plans to make both original and amended
campaign filings available online should
improve Virginia’s performance in
web site usability.
