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The State of Disclosure in Kentucky
Kentucky
improved from a C+ in 2007 to a B- in 2008,
but dropped one place in the rankings since
2007. The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance’s
web site was redesigned in 2007, and the
state earned a B- in the web site usability
category, up from a C+ in 2007 and an F in
2003.
Kentucky
performed best in the Campaign Disclosure
Law category, earning a B+ again in 2008. Candidates
must itemize contributions of $100 or more,
including occupation and employer data. Expenditures
over $25 must also be itemized, and reports
include both subvendor data and accrued expenditures.
For the second year in a row, the legislature
failed to pass a bill requiring electronic
filing by all statewide and legislative candidates
who raise $25,000. The Kentucky Registry of
Election Finance (KREF), however, operates
a strong voluntary electronic filing program
that was used by 75 percent of statewide candidates
and 56 percent of legislative candidates in
the 2007 general election. The KREF’s
web site features excellent electronic filing
tutorials, brochures, and helpful hints pages,
both encouraging candidates to take advantage
of electronic filing, and supporting those
who do.
Kentucky
earned its third straight B- in the Disclosure
Content Accessibility category and ranked
26th again in 2008. The KREF’s
web site features a searchable contributions
database containing records from electronically-filed
reports and paper reports that have been data-entered
by agency staff. The database is searchable
by donor name, employer, and zip code, as well
as the date and amount of individual contributions,
and search results can be downloaded for offline
analysis but cannot be sorted online. The lack
of an online, searchable database of campaign
expenditures is the main weakness in this area.
Further, itemized expenditures are only available
online for electronic filers; expenditures
reported on paper are not data-entered or scanned
and posted online.
Kentucky earned a B- in the web site usability
category, up from a C+ in 2007. Kentucky performed
slightly better on the 2008 usability test
as testers were able to complete their tasks
more quickly than in 2007, possibly due to
improved navigation on the redesigned disclosure
site. The new site is much more attractive
and features both text and graphic icons to
aid navigation. Site visitors are presented
with thorough instructions and tutorials for
accessing data, as well as clear descriptions
of what is and is not available through the
searchable database. Kentucky offers a user-friendly
system for viewing amended transactions: rather
than simply labeling the whole report as amended,
individual transactions are labeled and users
can view the original transaction in a pop-up
window.
→ Quick
Fix: Allow database search results
to be sorted online.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: A prominent “Search” icon
on the homepage provides easy navigation
to disclosure reports and the contributions
database. View
image
 Disclosure Agency: Kentucky Registry of Election Finance
Disclosure Web Site: http://kref.ky.gov
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