For
the third year in a row, South Carolina
received an F in the study and ranked
49th overall. There is still no campaign
finance data on the state’s disclosure
web site, despite the fact that sweeping
campaign finance and disclosure reforms
were passed and signed into law in 2003.
South
Carolina’s disclosure law
is its strong point, and requires candidates
to report detailed information about contributors
giving over $100, including occupation
but not employer. Disclosure of loan
details is strong, and candidates must
report details of all expenditures, including
subvendor payments and accrued expenses.
Independent expenditures are disclosed,
however neither last-minute independent
expenditures nor last-minute contributions
are reported prior to Election Day. The
State Ethics Commission was slow to put
out bids for development of an e-filing
program, though the law requires that candidates
file electronically, but is now working
with a vendor and plans to have a program
in place by early 2006.
Two
years after South Carolina passed disclosure
reform, the State Ethics Commission web
site still contains no campaign finance
reports or even summaries of total amounts
raised and spent by all state-level candidates.
That fact is why the state again received
an F and ranked last in the country for
Disclosure Content Accessibility. The
Commission plans to post electronic filings
online beginning in 2006, but if those
plans should be delayed, a relatively simple
backup option would be posting candidate
filings online as scanned images. In
the meantime, the state could reduce the
cost of paper copies of disclosure reports,
which is currently $.50 per page.
Not
surprisingly, South Carolina’s
web site usability grade continues to suffer
from the lack of campaign data on the state’s
disclosure web site, though the site does
include some information to help the public
understand the state’s disclosure
rules and requirements. One of the “Major
Achievements of the Past Year” included
in the agency’s annual report on
the 2003-2004 fiscal year was the “availability of all
Commission forms online” in PDF;
considering this development a major achievement
provides some insight into where the agency
has been, technologically speaking, and
how far it still has to go.
→ Quick
Fix: Lower the
cost of paper copies of disclosure
records.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: The
disclosure agency’s complete
contact information is displayed prominently
at the top of the disclosure web site. View image
