The State of Disclosure in Delaware
Delaware has failed in each of the last three
assessments and is one of just two states to
earn a lower grade in 2008 than in 2003, when
the state earned a D-. A weaker usability test
performance dropped Delaware from a D- in 2007
to an F in 2008 in the Online Contextual and
Technical Usability category.
Delaware’s disclosure law earned a D
and ranked 41st again in 2008. Candidates are
required to report the name and address of
contributors giving $100 or more, but occupation
and employer data are not reported. Candidates
must itemize their campaign expenses of $100
or more, but subvendor details are not disclosed.
Independent expenditures are reported, but
neither last-minute independent expenditures
nor last-minute contributions are disclosed
until after Election Day. Delaware does not
require candidates to file disclosure reports
electronically, but an impressive 80 percent
of statewide candidates and 45 percent of legislative
candidates choose to participate in the state’s
voluntary program.
In
2003, Delaware earned a C- in the accessibility
category on the strength of its online, searchable
contributions and expenditures databases. By
the time of the 2004 assessment, the databases
had been removed and Delaware has failed in
this category in the past four assessments.
The main shortcoming in the area of accessibility
is that disclosure data is presented on the
Department of Elections’ web site only
in a browsable format. Both electronically-filed
reports and scanned copies of paper-filed reports
are presented as static PDF documents, meaning
that data cannot be searched, sorted, or downloaded
to a spreadsheet for offline analysis.
Delaware
dropped from a D- in 2007 to a failing grade
in the Online Contextual and Technical Usability
category in 2008. Gains made on the 2007
usability test were lost and most testers
found the site confusing and reported low levels
of confidence with the data found online. The
overall presentation of disclosure reports
is cumbersome in that users cannot view a compete
listing of a candidate’s reports on one
screen. Rather, reports are organized by year,
then by candidate within the selected year,
making viewing a candidate’s complete
filing history difficult. Other shortcomings
include the lack of an explanation of the data
available on the site or information on recent
and historical campaign finance trends in Delaware.
→ Quick
Fix: Add a page to the site describing
which candidates have campaign reports
available online, the time periods
covered, and instructions for accessing
the data.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Contribution
limits are prominently linked from
the campaign finance homepage (View
image) and
are presented in a clean and easily
accessible chart. (View
image)
Disclosure
Agency: Department
of Elections
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.elections.delaware.gov |