Louisiana’s
overall grade slipped a notch in 2005
from a C+ to a C, due to a slightly lower
web site usability grade. Its performance
in the disclosure law, electronic filing,
and data accessibility categories remained
basically unchanged.
Louisiana’s
disclosure law ranks among the top twenty
in the country, and includes particularly
strong expenditure disclosure and enforcement
provisions. Candidates
report the names and addresses of contributors,
but are not required to collect and disclose
occupation and employer information. Last-minute
contributions must be disclosed before
the election, but the reporting threshold
increased last year to $1,000 for major
office candidates and $500 for district-level
candidates.
Electronic
filing is required of statewide candidates
raising at least $50,000, but is voluntary
for legislative candidates. The
Board of Ethics’ current strategic
plan sets forth a relatively modest goal
of having 20 percent of filers submitting
reports electronically by 2010. Given
that goal and the time period they have
given themselves to accomplish it, one
wonders how many candidates are actually
voluntarily e-filing now; it is a
difficult question to answer, as the agency
reports it does not keep statistics on
the number of voluntary electronic filers
in Louisiana.
The
question of how many candidates are filing
electronically is particularly relevant
because Louisiana’s searchable databases
of contributions and expenditures include
only electronically-filed reports. Reports
filed on paper, which represent the vast
majority of reports, can only be viewed
online as scanned images that are not always
easy to read. The searchable databases
still have some technical problems, most
notably that the system is case sensitive.
Fortunately, the governor is no longer
filing her reports in all-capital letters,
which means data from her most recently
filed reports can be more easily searched.
Lousiana’s
grade for Online Contextual and Technical
Usability dropped from a D+ to a D and
its rank fell from 17th to 31st in 2005,
mostly due to a lower score in the usability
test. Testers had difficulty locating
summary contribution figures for specific
candidates, and expressed less confidence
in their ability to use the site to gather
accurate information.
→ Quick
Fix: Post complete
lists of candidates, including office
and district information, on the disclosure
web site.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Directory
of Campaign Finance Late Fees. For
each committee that has incurred fees,
the site lists which report was late
and by how many days, the fine amount,
amount paid to date, and outstanding
fee balance. View image
