North
Carolina’s web site usability
grade improved in 2005, but its electronic
filing grade slipped, leaving the state
with another overall D+ and a campaign
disclosure program that now ranks 27th
in the nation.
North
Carolina’s disclosure
law is among the ten best in the country,
and requires candidates to report detailed
information about contributors giving over
$100, including occupation and employer.
Large, last-minute contributions are disclosed
before Election Day, but there is no last-minute
independent expenditure reporting. Expenditure
disclosure is particularly strong and candidates
must report details about payments over
$50, including subvendor payments for media-related
expenses. Statewide candidates raising
over $5,000, and legislative candidates
contributing more than $5,000 to statewide
candidate committees, must file reports
electronically. Inadequate funding
for the state’s e-filing program
caused its Electronic Filing Program grade
to drop from a C to a D in 2005.
For
the third year in a row, North Carolina
received an F in the Disclosure Content
Accessibility category, and its rank
dropped again as other states improved.
While all candidates’ disclosure
reports are available online and can be
browsed in HTML or downloaded, the Board
of Elections web site is still lacking
a searchable database of contributions
and expenditures. Board
staff report that, while the agency would
like to offer such a database online, it
simply does not have the staff or financial
resources necessary to make that upgrade.
To improve the current system without spending
a lot of money, the agency could give site
visitors the option of sorting the itemized
data online.
North
Carolina’s Online
Contextual and Technical Usability grade
improved from an F to a D in 2005, because
it became much easier to locate the disclosure
web site from the main state web portal,
and because the state received a slightly
higher score in the usability test. The
Board of Elections updated the look of
its web site this year, but could still
improve the quality of contextual information
on the site by adding current overview
information (lists of the total amounts
raised and spent by each candidate) and
a detailed explanation of which candidates’ records
are available online.
→ Quick
Fix: Add
the ability to sort detailed listings
of contributions and expenditures.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Historical
campaign finance data. Itemized
data going back to 1990, including
all schedules of all reports, is available
online and can be downloaded in spreadsheet
format. View image
