Grading State Disclosure 2008 Logo Graphic

N e w . H a m p s h i r e

Grade
Rank
D
39

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Subcategories
Grade
Rank
Campaign Disclosure Law
B-
21
Electronic Filing Program
F
38
Disclosure Content Accessibility
F
37
Online Contextual & Technical Usability
F
49

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

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The State of Disclosure in New Hampshire

New Hampshire earned a passing grade for the first time in 2008 and was one of the five most improved states since 2007. The addition of an online, searchable database of campaign contributions helped the state move up eleven places in the accessibility category, despite again earning an F in this category.

New Hampshire earned a B- in the Campaign Disclosure Law category in each of the five assessments and ranked 21st in this area in 2008. Candidates must report details about contributors giving $25 or more, including occupation and employer data for those contributing more than $100. Reporting of campaign expenditures is weak in comparison, with no subvendor or accrued expenditures disclosed. Independent expenditures are reported, and both last-minute independent expenditures and last-minute contributions are reported prior to Election Day. Electronic filing initially debuted in New Hampshire in 2006 but the system was taken offline due to usability and security issues. The state reintroduced its voluntary electronic filing program in 2008 and ranked 38th in this area.

New Hampshire earned an F again in the Disclosure Content Accessibility category in 2008. The Secretary of State’s web site features scanned copies of disclosure reports that have been filed on paper by candidates for statewide or senate offices; house candidates’ reports are not accessible online. With the reintroduction of electronic filing in 2008, electronically-filed data is available through a new online, searchable database of contributions. While not much electronic data had come online by the close of this study’s assessment period, the database allows the public to search electronic records for individual donors by name and contribution amount. Additionally, search results can be sorted online or downloaded to a spreadsheet for offline analysis.

New Hampshire earned its fifth F in the area of Online Contextual and Technical Usability and ranked 49th in 2008. Usability testers again rated the Secretary of State’s disclosure site poorly and again reported a lack of confidence in the information on the site and confusion over the site’s terminology. Although the new campaign finance database provides instructions, the majority of disclosure data is contained in a section of the site that does not. The site also does not contain comparisons of campaign finance activity among candidates and paper-filed reports are presented with very little information about what reports are and are not accessible online.

Quick Fix : Add a page to the site describing which candidates have campaign data available online, the time periods covered, and instructions for accessing the data online either through the main site or the electronic disclosure search pages.

Editor’s Pick: Database search results are cleanly presented and easy to sort or download. View image

Disclosure Agency: Department of State
Disclosure Web Site:
http://www.sos.nh.gov

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