Delaware’s improved usability grade – up
from an F in 2003 – was balanced
out by a significant drop in its Disclosure
Content Accessibility grade, leaving the
state again with a D- overall.
Delaware
law requires candidates to file campaign
finance reports annually in non-election
years and two times before an election. Candidates
must report detailed information about
contributors who give $100 or more, but
are not required to list a contributor’s
occupation or employer. Last-minute
contributions do not have to be reported
before an election. Details about
expenditures of $100 or more must be reported,
but subvendor information is not required. Independent
expenditures must be reported, but last-minute
independent expenditures are not disclosed
until after the election. Delaware’s
electronic filing program is well-established,
but remains voluntary for both statewide
and legislative candidates. The disclosure
agency reported that it has plans to make
e-filing a more user-friendly, and thus
more attractive, option.
A
lack of records for the current election
(or even the 2002 election) in the agency’s
online campaign finance database, which
Commissioner of Elections staff described
as being “under construction”,
is the main cause of Delaware’s drop
from a C- to an F in Disclosure Content
Accessibility. All of the most recent
campaign finance reports are instead available
as scanned images, which means they cannot
be searched, sorted, or downloaded in a
format that enables data analysis. Hopefully,
the agency’s plans to improve both
the filing process and the display of online
records will be implemented soon and will
result in improved Internet accessibility. In
the meantime, it may be easier for interested
parties to request copies of disclosure
records on paper, either from their local
library or directly from the Commissioner
of Elections.
Although
Delaware has improved in Online Contextual
and Technical Usability, the state earned
a D in this category and could make some
additional progress. Information
about campaign finance restrictions and
disclosure requirements is now available
online, but the site still lacks a “data
history” document that describes
which records are online, and overview
information to give visitors a better understanding
of how one candidate’s fundraising
activity compares to the others. The
Commissioner of Elections web site has
been redesigned, but still has terminology
and technical usability problems. It
became easier to locate the disclosure
site from the main state web site, which
may have caused the slight increase in
Delaware’s usability testing score.
