States Move Towards Greater Government Transparency

image
Published: 24 May, 2013
Updated: 21 Nov, 2022
2 min read

Credit: carl ballou / Shutterstock.com Credit: carl ballou / Shutterstock.com

This week, California and Alabama joined the growing number of states advancing towards greater government transparency by adopting new online disclosure systems. In California, Secretary of State Debra Bowen reversed her initial opposition to providing a unified campaign finance database entirely online.

Pressure from groups like MapLight and California Common Cause -- nonpartisan government accountability organizations -- had been mounting on the state agency for over a year to institute the change.

Currently, campaign finance data is only downloadable in committee sections, complicating the research process. Likewise, to obtain the full database, interested parties need to pay $5 to receive a CD-ROM of the data by mail. September 3, 2013 was given as the activation date for the updated Cal-Access system.

Bringing the full database online was complicated by the Online Disclosure Act of 1997, prohibiting online publication of addresses and other personal information. Daniel G. Newman, president and co-founder of MapLight, said in a release:

 "When millions of dollars are being raised and spent every day during election season, a downloadable version of the database, made available daily, is what Californians need and deserve in order to know who's funding public elections."

East of the Mississippi, Alabama's Secretary of State, Beth Chapman, announced a new electronic filing system for campaign disclosures Wednesday. Candidates will be able to file donor receipts instead of submitting paper documents that need to be scanned and filed. The new disclosure portal is set to be operational by May 29.

It should come as little surprise that both states scored poorly on the Sunlight Foundation's Open Legislative Data Report Card. Released in March, the Sunlight Foundation gave Alabama an 'F' and California a 'D' in legislative data accessibility.

One of the criteria for the study was ease of physical or electronic access:

Datasets released by the government should as accessible as possible, with accessibility defined as the ease with which information can be obtained, whether through physical or electronic means. Barriers to physical access include requirements to visit a particular office in person or requirements to comply with particular procedures

Both California and Alabama scored below average in the ease of use category. Fortunately, these improvements are likely to result in better government transparency scores in the future.

IVP Donate

Latest articles

Tulsi Gabbard
Is Tulsi Gabbard Being Sidelined by Another Party?
Tulsi Gabbard can’t seem to catch a break, no matter which party or administration she joins. First, she was ostracized by the Democratic Party in 2016 when she spoke out against the party’s unfair treatment against Bernie Sanders. At the time, she was a sitting Democratic congresswoman and DNC vice chair....
26 Jun, 2025
-
4 min read
A gas station with cannabis products on the pump with the US Capitol building in the background.
Congress Moves to Ban Unregulated, Intoxicating Hemp Being Sold at Gas Stations Nationwide
In a late-session vote last week, House Republicans advanced a sweeping change to federal hemp policy that could outlaw a wide range of intoxicating hemp products, sometimes referred to as “gas station weed,” as the hemp Farm Bill loopholes become a major policy issue in many states, including California, Tennessee and Texas....
26 Jun, 2025
-
3 min read
NYC open primaries picket.
On Primary Day, NY Orgs Picket on Behalf of 3.5 Million Disenfranchised Voters
Much of the election coverage on Tuesday focused on the New York primaries, especially in NYC and the hotly contested ranked choice election for mayor. What got less attention, however, were the 3.5 million independent voters in the state locked out of elections they paid for....
25 Jun, 2025
-
4 min read