A major upgrade for the state’s electronic campaign donor disclosure system will go online Sept. 1.
Secretary of State Mark Martin’s office is putting the finishing touches on a new system for candidates to report contributions to their campaigns online. The system is aimed at shedding light on money in politics.
It complements Act 318 of 2017 by Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, which requires candidates to use the online system in most circumstances starting Oct. 1.
“For the public, the search engine in it is really nice,” she said. “You can search by any information that we’re entering. Or, you can download the entire database … so you can sort through it, add it — whatever you want to do with it. That’s leaps and bounds ahead of what we had before.”
The system allows candidates to report who donates to them in a format that’s easily searchable. Instead of downloading copies of paper financial reports, searchers will be able to find the total amount given by specific donors across different candidates and races.
Della Rosa said the system also benefits candidates. It will track donors, making it more difficult for candidates to accept more money from a person than allowed. It makes clear which political action committees are registered. And it adds up contributions over time.
“People make honest mistakes and just forget to carry the one,” she said. “It cleans up a lot of easy mistakes, honest mistakes. It makes it a lot easier to report properly in a timely manner.”
More information about the filing system is available at sos.arkansas.gov/elections/Pages/financialDisclosure. aspx
The state had a computer system that allowed candidates to report their donations, but lawmakers said it was unreliable and donations had to be entered one at a time.
Della Rosa led an unsuccessful push to mandate electronic disclosure in the 2015 regular legislative session. She has said the previous online system contributed to her bill’s failure.
Chris Powell, a spokesman for Martin, said the new system cost $761,575, including three years of maintenance and support.
Lawmakers appropriated money for the system under Act 269 of the 2016 fiscal session.
Lawmakers can opt out of electronic filing if they sign a notarized affidavit declaring they “do not have access to the technology necessary to submit reports in electronic form” and “submitting reports in electronic form would constitute a substantial hardship.”