The State of Disclosure in North Dakota
North
Dakota ranked 47th in 2008, and has earned
an F in each of the five Grading State Disclosure
assessments conducted since 2003, largely
due to the state’s weak disclosure
law.
North
Dakota has earned an F and ranked last in
the Campaign Disclosure Law category in every
Grading State Disclosure study. Adding to
the usual challenges of reforming campaign
finance laws, the North Dakota legislature
meets just once every two years. North Dakota
is the only state that does not require campaign
expenditures to be disclosed and is one of
just six states that do not require the disclosure
of independent expenditures. Contribution reporting
is required, and candidates must disclose the
name and address of contributors who give over
$200, including the aggregate amount donated
during the reporting period. Donor occupation
and employer information is required, but only
for those giving $5,000 or more. North Dakota
does not operate a program for candidates to
file disclosure reports electronically but
the Secretary of State’s office has reported
that electronic filing is a goal for the future
if funding allows.
North
Dakota has earned a D+ in the Disclosure
Content Accessibly category since 2005 and
ranked 32nd in 2008. The Secretary of State’s
office data-enters reports filed on paper by
state-level candidates, resulting in clean
displays of disclosure reports on the site.
The disclosure site also features a comprehensive
database of contributions that can be searched
by donor name or zip code, but not by contribution
amount or by a specific date. Database search
results cannot be sorted online, but they can
be downloaded for offline analysis. The Secretary
of State’s office offers campaign finance
data on disk and provides paper copies of reports
for $.25 per page.
North
Dakota earned a C- again in the web site
usability category in 2008 though the state
slipped seven places in the rankings since
2007 as other states improved. The state
performed well on the usability test in 2008
as testers rated the site favorably and most
expressed confidence in the data they found.
The Secretary of State’s web site provides
helpful information about campaign finance
requirements and restrictions, and detailed
lists of candidates. Amended disclosure reports
are clearly labeled, but original reports are
removed once amended. The site could be improved
by providing comparisons of the total funds
raised and spent by candidates for each office
in the most recent election to give the public
a better overview of campaign finance trends.
→ Quick
Fix: Add information describing
which reports are available online,
what data is included, and what
time periods are covered to give
site visitors a better sense of
the scope of data available on
the disclosure web site.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: The simple, clean design
of the Secretary of State’s
disclosure web site. View
image
Disclosure Agency: Secretary of State
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.nd.gov/sos/ |