The State of Disclosure in Arkansas

Arkansas received an F in 2007, though the state has begun to make significant improvements that will increase access to campaign finance data in the future, including the implementation of an electronic filing program this year.

While average by this study’s standards, Arkansas’s campaign finance law is the strongest area of the state’s disclosure program. Candidates must report detailed information about contributors giving as little as $50, including occupation and employer data. Expenditures above $99 are also disclosed, but reports do not include subvendor information. Independent expenditure disclosure is weak and reports do not include who benefits from such expenditures, or the cumulative amount spent. While candidates do file monthly election year campaign finance reports, neither contributions nor independent expenditures made at the last minute are disclosed until after Election Day.

Arkansas’s rank in the Electronic Filing category improved in 2007 with the creation of a voluntary electronic filing program for candidates. Currently, Arkansas only offers site visitors the ability to search for candidate filings by name or office, but the site does note, “As filers use the database we will be able to expand this criteria for future searches.” If the electronic filing program results in more data available online in accessible formats, not only will the public’s access improve, but Arkansas’s performance in this assessment will likely improve as well.

Arkansas again earned an F in the Disclosure Content Accessibility category, with the site’s major deficiency being the lack of searchable databases of contributions and expenditures. Currently, the state scans and uploads all disclosure reports as PDF files. Recent enhancements to the system made this process faster and moved the state up one place in the accessibility rankings. Presently, the scanned paper filings can be difficult to decipher depending on the quality of the scan, as well as the legibility of handwritten reports. A benefit of the new electronic filing program will be the clean, legible reports produced by the system.

In 2007, fewer usability testers expressed confidence in the site than in the past, and overall ratings of their experiences were lower than those reported in the 2005 assessment. Contributing to the failing contextual usability grade, the site does not offer overviews of totals raised or spent by candidates or thorough instructions for how to access the available data. While the gains made in the Online Contextual and Technical Usability category in 2005 were lost, there is hope for Arkansas to move back out of the F range as the benefits of the new filing system become apparent on the Secretary of State’s web site.

→ Quick Fix: Provide a general description of the universe of data available for viewing online to help site visitors understand which candidates’ reports are online, and what time period is covered by the reports.

Disclosure Agency: Secretary of State
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us

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