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The State of Disclosure in Nevada
Nevada has earned an F in the last four assessments
after having earned a D in Grading State
Disclosure 2003. The state slipped one
place to 45th in the rankings in 2008, though
a stronger performance on the usability test
moved Nevada from a D to a D+ in the Online
Contextual and Technical Usability category.
Nevada
slipped one spot lower in the Campaign Disclosure
Law rankings to 47th in 2008, again earning
an F in this area. Candidates must disclose
the names of contributors giving more than
$100, but a donor’s occupation,
employer, and cumulative amount given are not
reported. Expenditure disclosure is stronger,
with expenses over $100 itemized, though payments
made by subvendors are not. Disclosure of loans
and independent expenditures is weak, as are
the law’s enforcement provisions. Electronic
filing is not required in Nevada, though 22
percent of statewide and legislative candidates
have participated in a voluntary program.
Nevada
earned its last passing grade in the accessibility
category in 2003 when the Secretary of State’s
web site featured a searchable database of
electronically-filed reports. Since the database
was removed prior to the 2004 assessment,
Nevada has not earned another passing grade
in this category. The Secretary of State’s
office provides immediate, online access
to electronically-filed reports, and scanned
copies of paper-filed reports are posted
online within a day of receipt. Both types
of reports are presented in a static HTML
or PDF format that does not allow data to
be sorted online or downloaded for offline
analysis, making it difficult for site visitors
to locate a specific contribution or campaign
expense.
A
stronger performance on the 2008 usability
test earned Nevada a D+ in 2008 in the Online
Contextual and Technical Usability category.
The Secretary of State’s web site was
redesigned in 2007 and usability testers were
able to perform their tasks more quickly than
before the redesign, though confusion over
the site’s terminology was reported again
in 2008. The disclosure site offers a good
amount of contextual information to the public,
including disclosure requirements and a thorough
description of the data available online. To
help the public view a single candidate’s
fundraising and spending within the context
of campaign finance trends in the state, the
agency could add simple comparisons of the
totals raised and spent by candidates for each
office during each election period.
→ Quick
Fix: Add the office sought
by each candidate to the alphabetical
list of filers. Currently, the
listing provides only the name
of candidates and site visitors
may not know which office each
candidate is seeking.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: The Secretary of State’s
homepage offers a direct link to
the “Candidate Contribution & Expense
Report Search” page. View
image
 Disclosure Agency: Secretary of State
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.sos.state.nv.us
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