Grading State Disclosure

Campaign Finance Disclosure in the States: An Overview

State Campaign Finance Disclosure Laws

Number of states that require reporting of last-minute contributions:	34
Number of states that require a contributor’s occupation and employer to be disclosed:	28
Number that require a contributor’s occupation to be disclosed, but not employer:	6
Number that require a contributor’s employer to be disclosed, but not occupation:	2
Number of states that do not require contributor occupation or employer information:	14
Number of states that require expenditures to be described in campaign disclosure reports:	48
Number of states that require both a descriptive code and a plain language description of each expenditure:	9
Number of states that require a plain language expenditure description only:	38
Number of states that require descriptive expenditure codes only:	1
Number of states that require disclosure of subvendor expenditures made on behalf of a campaign:	20
Number of states that require independent expenditures to be disclosed:	39
Number of states that require last-minute independent expenditures to be disclosed:	21
Number of states that direct their disclosure agencies to conduct “desk reviews” of campaign finance reports:	30
Number of states that direct their disclosure agencies to conduct field audits of campaign finance reports:	13

Electronic Filing of Campaign Finance Reports

Number of states that require candidates to electronically file campaign disclosure reports:	21
Number of these 21 states that require electronic filing by both legislative and statewide candidates:	15
Number of these 21 states that have an electronic filing mandate for statewide candidates and a voluntary electronic filing program for legislative candidates:	6
Number of states with a voluntary electronic filing program:	17
Number of states with no electronic filing program:	12

Disclosure Data - Access and Usability

Number of state disclosure web sites that tell the public what data can and cannot be found on the site:	22
Number of sites that provide information about campaign finance restrictions and disclosure reporting requirements:	45
Number of sites that provide only information about disclosure reporting requirements:	5
Number of state disclosure agencies that post campaign finance data on the Internet:	47
Number of state disclosure agencies that post no campaign finance on the Internet:	3
Number of state disclosure web sites with searchable, online databases of contributions:	30
Number of state disclosure web sites with searchable, online databases of expenditures:	20
Number of searchable expenditure databases in states without electronic filing:	0
Number of states where disclosure data can be sorted online:	20
Number of states with electronic filing that allow the public to download disclosure data from the agency's web site:	24
Number of states without electronic filing that allow the public to download data from the agency’s web site:	3

Thanks to Harper's magazine for permission to use its "index" format.

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