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Summary of Findings

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Thirty-three states received passing grades in the Grading State Disclosure study, while 17 states were found to have less than satisfactory campaign finance disclosure programs and failed the assessment. Washington state received the only grade in the A range, and Illinois received the only B. Fifteen states received grades in the C range, and 16 received grades in the D range. (See the charts for a complete listing of grades and ranks.)

The top ten states overall are: Washington (A-), Illinois (B), Massachusetts (C+), Ohio (C+), Texas (C+), Hawaii (C), Florida (C), New Jersey (C), California (C), and Michigan (C).

Campaign Disclosure Laws
Electronic Filing Programs
Disclosure Content Accessibility
Online Contextual and Technical Usability
The New York City Campaign Finance Board: A Local Campaign Finance Disclosure Program

Charts, Maps and Statistics


The bottom ten states (all of which received an F), in rank order from 41 to 50, are: Arkansas, Vermont, South Dakota, New Mexico, Iowa, Tennessee, Alabama, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Wyoming.

The findings of the study show that while many states have good campaign finance disclosure laws and are doing an adequate job of making campaign finance information available to the public, there is still room for improvement across the country in all four of the disclosure categories of the study, and particularly in the areas of Disclosure Content Accessibility and Online Contextual and Technical Usability.

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This page was first published on September 17, 2003 | Last updated on September 17, 2003
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