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Campaign Finance Disclosure in the States: An Overview

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State Campaign Finance Disclosure Laws

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: 7
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: 13
Number of states that require timely reporting of last-minute contributions: 35
Number of states that require expenditures to be described in campaign disclosure reports: 48
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: 40
Number of these 40 states that require reporting of which candidate will benefit from the expenditure: 33
Number of states that require last-minute independent expenditures to be disclosed: 22
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
Number of states that are not required by law to conduct at least one of these forms of review: 17

Electronic Filing of Campaign Finance Reports

Number of states that require candidates to electronically file campaign disclosure reports: 24
Number of these 24 states that require electronic filing by both legislative and statewide candidates: 18
Number of these 24 states that have an electronic filing mandate for statewide candidates only: 6
Number of states with a voluntary electronic filing program: 13
Average percentage of candidates filing electronically in these thirteen states: 25
Number of states with no electronic filing program: 13

Disclosure Data - Access and Usability

Number of state disclosure agencies that post campaign finance data on the Internet: 47
Number of state disclosure web sites that provide both itemized contribution and expenditure data online: 43
Number of state disclosure web sites that provide itemized contribution data only: 4
Number of states that post campaign finance reports online within 48 hours:   31
Number of states whose sites feature lists of total amounts raised and spent by candidates in recent elections:  20
Number of state disclosure web sites with online, searchable databases of contributions:  32
Number of state disclosure web sites with online, searchable databases of expenditures: 20
Percentage of states with mandatory electronic filing that offer an online searchable database:  83
Number of states where disclosure data can be sorted online: 21
Number of states with electronic filing that allow the public to download disclosure data from the agency's web site: 27
Number of these 27 states that have electronic filing programs: 24

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

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This page was first published on October 26, 2005
| Last updated on October 26, 2005
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