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The
State of Disclosure in New Mexico
New
Mexico’s big improvement in the
Electronic Filing Program category was still
not enough to raise the state’s overall
grade above an F, due to continuing poor performance
in the remaining three categories of the study.
Candidates
in New Mexico must report detailed information
about contributors giving $250 or more, including
occupation but not employer or cumulative
amount donated. Loan disclosure
is a weak point, and there is no independent
expenditure reporting. Candidates are required
to disclose details about expenditures, but
reports do not include subvendor details or
accrued expenses. Large, last-minute
contributions are reported before Election
Day. Starting in January of 2006, all
statewide and legislative candidates who are
required to file reports with the Secretary
of State must file them electronically, unless
they apply for and are granted a hardship exemption
from that agency.
New
Mexico’s disclosure web site includes
images of scanned campaign finance reports
for all state-level candidates, but accessing
those reports can be difficult. Site
visitors first have to know either a candidate’s
name or a report date; if they do not, they
must go back several screens to look for that
information in the Bureau of Elections’ section
of the site. Replacing the cumbersome
report-viewing software—which does not
work on some computer platforms and is really
just a complicated way of displaying PDF files—with
simple links to filings that can be viewed
using a free PDF-viewer, would be a huge improvement.
The Secretary of State’s office reports
that it plans to offer a searchable database
online by 2006; hopefully it will upgrade the
system for browsing complete filings at the
same time.
Another
F for Online Contextual and Technical Usability
confirms that there is also plenty of room
for improvement in the area of web site usability.
The Secretary of State’s
web site does feature a list of candidates,
information about disclosure requirements and
campaign finance restrictions, and both original
and amended campaign reports, but is still
missing a number of resources that are critical
for giving the public some context in which
to put disclosure data, such as a summary of
total amounts raised and spent by all candidates.
→ Quick
Fix: Add information
describing whose reports are available
online, what data is included, and what
time periods are covered, to give site
visitors a better sense of the scope of
the disclosure web site.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Helpful
description of the responsibilities
of the Secretary of State. View image
 Disclosure Agency: Secretary of State
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.sos.state.nm.us
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