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The State of Disclosure in Missouri
Missouri
moved into the top ten, earned a B in 2008,
and was the fourth most improved state overall
since the publication of Grading
State Disclosure 2003. Significant steps
taken by Missouri since 2003 were the creation
of online, searchable databases of campaign
finances in 2004 and expanding mandatory electronic
filing to legislative candidates in 2007.
Missouri
ranked among the top five states in the Campaign
Disclosure Law category, earning an A- in
2008. Candidates must provide details about
donors who give over $100, including occupation
and employer data. Last-minute contributions
are reported before Election Day, as are independent
expenditures made at the last minute. Disclosure
of loans is also strong and reports of campaign
expenses over $100 are thorough and include
subvendor details. While not included in this
year’s scoring, legislation enacted in
August 2008 further strengthened Missouri’s
disclosure requirements and increased penalties
for violating the law. For the second
year in a row, Missouri earned an A+ and ranked
first again in the Electronic Filing Program
category. All statewide and legislative candidates
in Missouri are required to file disclosure
reports electronically regardless of the amount
raised or spent.
Missouri
improved from a B to a B+ and climbed two
spots in the accessibility rankings by adding
a download option for database search results.
Electronically-filed data is posted online
immediately and can be searched through the
Missouri Ethics Commission’s contributions
and expenditures database. The public can search
the database by donor or payee name, zip code,
employer, or amount, but not by a specific
transaction date or expenditure purpose,
though both fields are included in the search
results. Search results cannot be sorted
online, but the new download option makes
it very easy to export itemized data to a
spreadsheet for offline analysis. Paper-filed
reports are scanned and posted to the Internet
within 24 hours of receipt. The Missouri
Ethics Commission provides excellent access
to paper copies of disclosure reports and
offers disclosure data on disk at no charge.
Missouri
improved from an F to a C in the Online Contextual
and Technical Usability category and moved
up ten places in the rankings to 25th in
2008 due to a stronger performance on the
usability test. Testers were able to complete
their tasks on the site more quickly than
in 2007, and higher levels of confidence
and understanding were reported in 2008.
The site could be made more user-friendly
with the addition of a general description
of the searchable databases, including search
instructions and an explanation of which
offices, report types, and time periods are
contained in the database. The disclosure
site features helpful information on Missouri’s
campaign finance requirements, and could
be further improved by offering overviews
of the totals raised and spent by candidates
for each office.
→ Quick
Fix: Provide a simple comparison
of the totals raised and spent by candidates
for each office in the most recent
election.
♦ Editor’s
Pick: For each candidate,
site visitors can view a listing of reports,
the method by which they were submitted,
and their posting status (i.e. “scanned” or “received
but not scanned”). View image
 Disclosure Agency: Missouri Ethics Commission
Disclosure Web Site: http://www.moethics.mo.gov
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