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The State of Disclosure in Rhode Island
Along with another strong performance in the
accessibility category, gains made in the Electronic
Filing and web site usability categories bumped
Rhode Island up to a solid B in 2007. However,
the state dropped out of the top ten overall
while other states made greater gains.
Rhode
Island’s disclosure law earned
a C again in 2007, and requires that candidates
disclose detailed information about contributors
giving at least $100, including employer but
not occupation data or cumulative amount donated.
Loan disclosure is a weak point as is late
contribution reporting; candidates who do not
participate in the state’s public financing
program are not required to disclose last-minute
contributions until after Election Day. Expenditures
over $100 must be disclosed, but reports do
not include subvendor information. Electronic
filing has been mandatory in Rhode Island for
statewide candidates for several years; legislative
candidates raising $5,000 were scheduled to
be required to file electronically in 2004
as well. However, implementation was delayed
and legislative candidates were not required
to file electronically until 2007. Despite
a legislative challenge to the mandate by state
lawmakers in 2007, the mandatory program remains
in place and earned the state an A+ in the
Electronic Filing category.
Rhode
Island continued to perform very well in
the Disclosure Content Accessibility category,
and earned an A and a top five ranking in 2007.
The Board of Elections provides excellent access
to candidates’ campaign filings, and
features comprehensive, searchable databases
of contribution and expenditure data on its
web site. The only thing missing from those
databases is the ability to search expenditure
records by purpose, even though this information
can be accessed through the search results.
Electronically-filed disclosure reports are
posted on the Internet immediately and are
followed by scanned copies of paper-filings
within five days.
While
little has changed on the state’s
disclosure site, usability testers were more
easily able to find data online than in 2005,
which boosted Rhode Island’s Online Contextual
and Technical Usability grade to a C+ in 2007.
Testers generally felt confident in their ability
to find specific, accurate data, and gave the
site a good overall rating. The index of candidate
reports is detailed and shows not only up-to-date
original and amended reports, but also provides
due dates for reports required in the future.
The online contextual information could be
improved by providing overviews of campaign
financing trends that compare totals raised
and spent by competing candidates, or by providing
additional details about the data available
online, such as the time period covered.
→ Quick
Fix: Add a list of the total
amounts raised and spent by all candidates,
organized by office.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: The index
of a candidate’s reports
shows the reporting period, due
date and the actual date that each
report was submitted, as well as
future reporting dates. View
image
 Disclosure Agency: Board of Elections
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.elections.state.ri.us
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