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The State of Disclosure in Maryland
There
were almost no measurable changes to Maryland’s
disclosure program in 2005, and the state
again received an overall C, with a particularly
low grade and rank in the Campaign Disclosure
Law category.
Maryland’s
disclosure law has a number of significant
shortcomings, most notably in the area of
independent expenditure disclosure (none
is required). Candidates are required
to report detailed information about contributors,
but occupation and employer are not included. Last-minute
contributions are not reported until after
the election. Expenditure disclosure
is better, but candidates still are not required
to report subvendor details. All statewide
and legislative candidates must file electronically,
and waivers are granted only to those committees
that have raised less than $5,000.
Maryland
provides the public with excellent access
to campaign finance records, offering comprehensive
online databases with both simple and advanced
search interfaces. The system
provides some unique search features, such
as the option to “include only dates
that do NOT match the above criteria,” and
itemized search results are preceded by useful
summary information about those results. Visitors
to the disclosure web site also have the option
of browsing complete filings, and data can
be downloaded for viewing and analyzing offline.
Though
the State Board of Elections’ web
site is full of useful data and information,
a few important resources are still missing
and the state’s Online Contextual and
Technical Usability grade suffers as a result.
Most importantly, while the site offers interesting
compilations and analyses, it does not provide
visitors with a way to quickly and easily compare
fundraising and spending amounts for all statewide
and legislative candidates. Site users are
also unable to access original reports, in
cases where amendments have been filed; only
the most recently filed report is online.
→ Quick
Fix: Add an overview
page or document that allows site visitors
to quickly compare spending and fundraising
among candidates running for the same office.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Campaign
Fund Report Statistics. This information
is updated daily and provides interesting
general statistics about what kinds of
entities are making contributions and where
those contributions are coming from. View image
 Disclosure Agency: State Board of Elections
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.elections.state.md.us
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