Grading State Disclosure 2008 Logo Graphic

N e b r a s k a

Grade
Rank
F
42

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Subcategories
Grade
Rank
Campaign Disclosure Law
C+
24
Electronic Filing Program
F
43
Disclosure Content Accessibility
F
39
Online Contextual & Technical Usability
F
46

Grading Process green cube Subcategory Weighting green cube Methodology green cube Glossary

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The State of Disclosure in Nebraska

Nebraska has received an F in each of the five Grading State Disclosure assessments since 2003, and ranked 42nd in 2008. Nebraska also earned an F in three of the four scoring categories in each year of the assessment.

Nebraska’s disclosure law ranked 24th and earned a C+ again in 2008. The law requires candidates to itemize contributions of $250 or more by name and date, but does not require contributors’ occupation or employer data to be disclosed. Expenditure disclosure is stronger, with transactions over $250 itemized, including those made by subvendors on behalf of a campaign. Large, last-minute contributions and independent expenditures are reported prior to Election Day. The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC) launched an electronic filing program for non-candidate committees in 2008 and is considering adding electronic filing for candidates in the next election cycle.

Nebraska earned an F in the accessibility category again in 2008. The NADC’s staff data-enters all disclosure records filed on paper, resulting in clean HTML displays of candidates’ reports. The disclosure site features a searchable database of contributions, but it contains only non-individual donors, such as businesses or organizations. The public can only find individual donors or itemized expenditures by browsing complete disclosure reports. Although the disclosure reports are displayed in an HTML format, itemized data within reports cannot be sorted online or downloaded for offline research.

Despite an improved performance on the 2008 usability test, Nebraska again failed to earn a passing grade in the Online Contextual and Technical Usability category. Usability testers were able to perform their tasks more quickly than in 2007, and testers reported higher levels of confidence in the data found on the site in 2008. The main shortcoming of Nebraska’s disclosure site is the lack of information available to provide the public with an understanding of candidates’ disclosure data. To improve in this area, the NADC could post a clear description of which candidates and reports are accessible on the disclosure site and instructions for accessing the data, provide online access to both original and amended reports, and publish overviews comparing the totals raised and spent by candidates for a specific office.

Quick Fix: Add a page to the site describing which candidates have reports available online, the time periods covered, and instructions for accessing the data online.

Editor’s Pick: HTML displays of campaign disclosure records that have been data-entered are cleaner and easier to read than if the state simply offered scanned copies of paper reports. View image

Disclosure Agency: Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission
Disclosure Web Site:
http://nadc.nol.org

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First published September 17, 2008
| Last updated September 17 2008
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Campaign Disclosure Project. All rights reserved.