There
has been significant change in Texas’ disclosure
program in 2005, most of it positive, and
the state’s overall grade improved
from a C+ to a B-. Texas now ranks
8th in the nation, up from 9th last year,
and is particularly strong in the area
of Disclosure Content Accessibility.
Texas
law requires candidates to disclose detailed
information about contributors giving
more than $50, including occupation and
employer, but not the cumulative amount
donated. Last-minute contributions,
as well as last-minute independent expenditures,
must be disclosed before Election Day.
All expenditures over $50 are reported,
but reports do not include information
about subvendor payments or accrued expenses.
Statewide and legislative candidates must
file electronically, and waivers are granted
only to those candidates who file an affidavit
saying they do not use a computer to track
campaign finance activity and who have
not raised or spent more than $20,000.
After
ranking 4th in the nation for access
to campaign data in 2003, Texas experienced
a drop in its Disclosure Content Accessibility
grade and rank in 2004 due to server capacity
problems with the searchable database on
the state’s disclosure web site.
The Texas Ethics Commission addressed those
problems in late 2004, the database is
functioning well, and the state now shares
the number two rank in this category with
Michigan and Rhode Island. Texas’ excellent
database could be improved further by adding
the ability to search expenditures by purpose.
The
Ethics Commission web site was redesigned
in 2005 and the information has been
reorganized for the better, though there
are a couple of instances in which terminology
could be improved to better direct site
visitors to key resources. For
example, the searchable database is accessed
through a link called “search campaign
finance reports” that is somewhat
buried on the Electronic Filing page,
rather than highlighted on the agency’s
homepage. Texas’ grade for web
site usability dropped slightly this
year, because of a lower score in the
usability test. Testers reported some
confusion over site terminology and expressed
a lack of confidence in the accuracy
of data they collected from the site.
→ Quick
Fix: Add a list
of candidates with office and district
information to the disclosure web
site.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Simple
and advanced search options, and contribution
and expenditure search fields, are
all integrated into one database
search screen. View image
