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The State of Disclosure in Kentucky
Kentucky earned a C+ for the third consecutive
assessment, though the state dropped seven
places in the rankings as other states made
improvements.
Kentucky’s
strong area is its disclosure law, which
is among the best in the country. Candidates
are required to report detailed information
about contributors giving more than $100,
including occupation and employer data. Expenditure
disclosure is excellent and reports must
include subvendor data and accrued expenditures.
However, reporting of last-minute contributions
is required only of gubernatorial candidates,
and last-minute independent expenditures
are not reported until after the election.
In late 2005, the Kentucky Registry of Election
Finance’s Task Force recommended a number
of campaign finance changes including mandatory
electronic filing for all state-level candidates.
The task force’s recommendations were
incorporated into Senate Bill 159 in 2007.
The bill cleared the Senate but did not pass
the House, leaving electronic filing as the
state’s weak point. Kentucky lawmakers
will have the opportunity to revisit the legislation
in the 2008 session. Currently, 37 percent
of statewide and 24 percent of legislative
candidates participate in the Kentucky Registry
of Election Finance’s voluntary electronic
filing program. The Registry does an excellent
job of promoting electronic filing to candidates
and provides many resources to help filers
through the process.
Kentucky
maintained a B- in the Disclosure Content
Accessibility category, but slipped five
places in the rankings since 2005. The Registry
maintains an online contribution database
comprised of records from electronically-filed
reports as well as records from paper reports
that are data-entered by agency staff. Although
Kentucky requires the agency to make campaign
data available online within ten days of receipt,
the agency reports that it typically accomplishes
this task in half that time. The contributions
database can be searched by numerous fields
and search results can be downloaded for offline
research. The biggest deficiency of the state’s
disclosure site remains the lack of an expenditure
database. Itemized expenditures are available
online if filed electronically, but are not
data-entered from paper filings.
Kentucky’s grade in the contextual usability
category improved to a C+ in 2007 as more usability
testers expressed confidence in the data found
online than in 2005. (The Registry’s
web site received a makeover in May 2007, after
the usability testing was completed.) The site
offers thorough instructions and tutorials
for accessing data, as well as clear descriptions
of what is and is not available through the
contributions database. Kentucky offers users
a unique system for viewing amended transactions:
rather than simply labeling the whole report
as amended, the Registry labels individual
transactions and allows users to generate a
pop-up window to view the transaction as originally
filed.
→ Quick
Fix: Add more functionality to
the contributor search by adding a “name
contains” search option and noting
the existing “name begins with” search
capability.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Pop-up windows for
amended transactions. View image
 Disclosure Agency: Kentucky Registry of Election Finance
Disclosure Web Site: http://kref.ky.gov
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