The State of Disclosure in North Dakota

Improved grades in Disclosure Content Accessibility and Online Contextual and Technical Usability contributed to the improvement of North Dakota’s overall rank from 44th to 43rd, but the state’s disclosure law still ranks last in the country and brings down its overall grade.

North Dakota law requires candidates to report detailed information about contributors giving over $200, plus occupation and employer information for those contributing $5,000 or more. The law does not require candidates to list a cumulative amount given by each contributor. Loans, campaign expenditures, and independent expenditures are not reported at all, which is the reason why the state ranks consistently at the bottom of the disclosure law category. While North Dakota currently does not have an electronic filing program in place, the Secretary of State’s office does plan to offer that option in the future.

North Dakota improved its grade for Disclosure Content Accessibility for the second year in a row, and now has a D+ in that category. Staff at the Secretary of State’s office key in data from reports filed by all state-level candidates, in order to create the browsable files and comprehensive, searchable database that are available on the agency’s web site.  Reports are posted to the Internet quickly, especially considering the data-entry work required to make them available online. The database is well-designed and easy to use, but search options are still limited; site visitors can search disclosure records by contributor name and zip code, but not by contribution date or amount.  For those looking to do more in-depth analysis of large amounts of contributor data, the agency now offers data on CD at a cost of $35 per request.

The Secretary of State’s web site is well-designed and easy to navigate, and scored very well in the study’s usability test this year. Testers easily located information about the governor’s campaign finance activity, expressed high levels of confidence in the accuracy of the data online, and gave the disclosure web site a very good rating overall. The most important thing the agency could do to improve further in this area is compile and post a list of the total amounts raised by each candidate, to enable quick comparisons of activity among all candidates.

→ Quick Fix: Add the ability to sort both search results and the display of contribution details within browsable disclosure reports.

♦ Editor’s Pick: Simple, clean design of the Secretary of State’s disclosure web site. View image

Disclosure Agency: Secretary of State
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.nd.gov/sos/