The State of Disclosure in Arkansas
Arkansas earned its first passing grade
in Grading State Disclosure 2008,
and was among the top five most improved
states since 2007. Arkansas also became
the second most improved state in the Disclosure
Content Accessibility category with the
addition of a searchable database of campaign
contributions to the Secretary of State’s
web site.
Arkansas
earned a C and ranked 35th again in the
Campaign Disclosure Law category in 2008.
Candidates must report detailed information
about contributors of $50 or more, including
occupation and employer data. Expenditures
over $99 are also disclosed, but reports
do not include subvendor details. Independent
expenditure disclosure is weak in that
reports do not include who benefits from
such expenditures or the cumulative amount
spent. While candidates file monthly
election year campaign finance reports,
last-minute contributions and last-minute
independent expenditures are not reported
until after Election Day. In the summer
of 2007, Arkansas implemented a voluntary
electronic filing program and an impressive
30 percent of legislative candidates took
advantage of this option in the program’s
first year.
Arkansas
improved from an F to a D+ and moved
nine places up in the accessibility rankings
since 2007 due to the addition of a searchable
database of campaign contributions on
the Secretary of State’s web site.
Contribution data that has been filed electronically
can be searched by donor name and contribution
amount and results can be sorted online
and downloaded for offline analysis. The
main drawback of the new database is that
it is difficult to find on the site; it
is linked from a list of candidates rather
than as a link from the main disclosure
search page. Electronically-filed reports
and paper-filed reports are both presented
as PDF files on the site, but the electronic
reports are much easier to read than the
scanned reports due to handwriting and
scan quality issues. Both paper and electronic
reports are accessible online the same
day they are filed with the Secretary of
State’s office.
Improved
contextual information and a stronger
usability test performance helped Arkansas
jump 15 places in the web site usability
rankings and move from an F to a C- since
2007. Usability testers reported lower
levels of confusion with the site than
those reported last year and all testers
reported confidence with the data this
year. The disclosure site now provides
better information about which types of
filings are available and instructions
for accessing the data. The site could
be further enhanced by labeling amended
reports within the index of a candidate’s
filing history and by providing tools for
comparing the totals raised and spent by
competing candidates.
→ Quick
Fix: Provide a direct link
from the disclosure site’s “Search
Reports”/”Quick Search” page
to the searchable database of campaign
contributors.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Each database search
field is accompanied by a “?” that
is linked to an explanation of
that search field’s requirements. View
image
Disclosure Agency: Secretary of State
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us |