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The State of Disclosure in Maine
Maine has earned a B in the last two assessments
and ranked 15th in 2008, a significant improvement
since Grading State Disclosure 2003,
when Maine earned a D- and ranked 29th. Maine’s
disclosure site was one of seven to have earned
the top rating on the web site usability test
again in 2008.
Maine earned a B and ranked 18th in the Campaign
Disclosure Law category in 2008. Candidates
are required to disclose contributions of $50
or more, including donor occupation and employer
data. Expenditure disclosure is also thorough
and includes disclosure of subvendor details
and accrued expenditures. Independent expenditure
disclosure is strong, and last-minute independent
expenditures must be reported prior to Election
Day. Maine requires both statewide and legislative
candidates to file disclosure reports electronically
once they have raised $1,500, earning the state
an A in this area of the assessment again in
2008.
Maine
has earned an A- in the Disclosure Content
Accessibility category in the last three assessments
and ranked 12th in 2008. The Commission on
Governmental Ethics and Election Practices
provides immediate, online access to electronically-filed
reports, and scanned copies of paper reports
are accessible within 24 hours of receipt.
Both electronic reports and paper-filed reports
that have been data-entered by agency staff
are searchable through the site’s online
contributions and expenditures databases. Users
can search the databases by name, amount, date
or zip code, but not by a donor’s employer
or campaign expense purpose. The Commission
is planning to make major changes to the disclosure
site in 2009. Adding the ability to sort search
results online and download results for offline
analysis would help make the site even more
user-friendly.
As
in 2007, Maine achieved the highest possible
usability test performance in 2008 and earned
a C in the Online Contextual and Technical
Usability category. All testers reported confidence
in their ability to find accurate data on the
site and rated the Commission on Governmental
Ethics and Election Practices’ web site
even more highly than testers did in 2007.
Despite the ease of use, Maine’s disclosure
site is lacking in terms of contextual information,
such as comparisons of the totals raised and
spent by candidates in current and past
election cycles. As the Commission’s
site is updated over the next year, adding
these features, as well as a detailed explanation
of data available, and specific instructions
for accessing the data would greatly improve
the site.
→ Quick
Fix: Add information describing
which candidates have reports online,
what data is included, and what time
periods are covered to give site
visitors a better sense of the scope
of data available on the disclosure
site.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: A “Who
to call for help” chart organized
by topic (view image), and the “Guide
to Political Activity,” (view image) designed
specifically “for
organizations and individuals other
than candidates.”
 Disclosure Agency: Commission on Governmental Ethics
and
Election Practices
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.state.me.us/ethics
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