Vermont’s
Online Contextual and Technical Usability
grade improved substantially in 2005,
rising from an F to a C-, but it still
received Fs in three of the four categories
of this study and ranked among the bottom
ten in the country overall.
Under
Vermont law, candidates must disclose
the name and address, but not occupation
or employer, of contributors giving over
$100. Contributions made at the
last minute are not reported until after
Election Day. Disclosure of campaign
expenditures is relatively strong, however
candidates do not report subvendor details.
Independent expenditures are not reported,
which is a major shortcoming in the state’s
disclosure law and one of the reasons for
the low grade and rank in this category.
Vermont is one of only thirteen states
that do not offer candidates the option
of filing disclosure reports electronically.
Vermont
again received an F for Disclosure Content
Accessibility and its rank in this category
fell from 33 to 35, reflecting the fact
that, while other states made improvements,
access to disclosure records in Vermont
is still poor. The Secretary
of State’s office scans all state-level
candidates’ campaign finance reports
and posts them online as TIFF files, but
the files display poorly and can be difficult
to view on a computer screen. The
agency’s web site also offers searchable
text files of statewide candidates’ complete
filings, but this “search” operates
more like a computer program “find” command
and falls short of the type of functionality
called for in this study’s criteria.
On the bright side, access to paper copies
of disclosure records is excellent and
Vermont is among the best in the country
in this regard.
The
one area in which Vermont improved in
2005 was Online Contextual and Technical
Usability, in which its grade jumped
from an F to a C-, and its rank from
35 to 17. The
state’s disclosure web site already
featured a number of great resources to
help site visitors understand campaign
finance in Vermont, including information
about disclosure rules and both current
and historical summary reports. The
improvement in the grade was due to a higher
score in the usability test this year,
with testers better able to answer specific
questions about the governor’s fundraising
activity, and giving the disclosure site
a higher rating overall.
→ Quick
Fix: Improve the
description of the report database,
including adding information about
how far back in time the reports
go, and explaining terms such as “Native
ASCII” and “First
Hit” that appear on the report
viewing page.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Disclosure
web site includes photos of Elections & Campaign
Finance Division staff, along with
a description of their work and their
contact information. View image
