Texas
again earned a B- in 2007, though the
state slipped out of the top ten in the
rankings as other states improved. Despite
some contextual improvements made to
the Texas Ethics Commission’s
web site, the state slipped again in the
usability testing and its grade in this
area dropped from a D- to an F in 2007.
Texas earned a B- in 2007, and ranked
19th in the Campaign Disclosure Law category.
Candidates must disclose detailed information
about contributors giving more than $50,
including occupation and employer data
for donors giving $500 or more. All expenditures
over $50 are reported, but reports do not
include information about subvendor payments
or accrued expenses. Texas requires last-minute
contributions and last-minute independent
expenditures to be disclosed before Election
Day. Upon recommendations from the Texas
Ethics Commission Task Force, the legislature
passed laws in 2007 to strengthen pre-election
and last-minute reporting requirements,
and extended civil penalties to last-minute
reporting violations. Texas earned an A+
and a share in the top national ranking
for its mandatory electronic filing program,
which covers all state-level candidates
who reach a $20,000 threshold.
Texas
is a national leader in terms of accessibility
to disclosure data, again earning an
A in this area in 2007. The Commission
posts all campaign reports online within
24 hours of receipt, and offers online,
searchable databases of contributions
and expenditures that have been filed electronically.
While searches cannot be conducted by expenditure
purpose, the database contains many other
search fields, as well as options for sorting
and downloading disclosure data. Additionally,
the display of itemized search results
contains a helpful link from each transaction
to the filer’s complete disclosure
report.
Despite
efforts by the Texas Ethics Commission
to improve the disclosure web site, the
state received a lower usability test
rating for the second consecutive assessment.
Only one tester was able to locate the
disclosure site from the Texas state
homepage in 2007. The Commission has
improved the terminology used on the
site, provides better descriptions of
the data available, and added a link
to the Secretary of State’s
site to allow easier identification of
candidates. Providing a list of candidates
directly on the Commission’s site
would give the public easier access to
this important contextual information.
→ Quick
Fix: Create a clearer path
to the Ethics Commission web site
from the Texas state homepage.
There are a number of logical
options for placing a link to “campaign
finance information” on the
state homepage, such as from the “Voting” or “Government” sections.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: Simple
and advanced search options, and contribution
and expenditure search fields, are
all integrated into one database
search screen. View image
