Previewing an improved campaign reporting Web site
Posted 6/23/2009 12:01:00 AM
On Friday, I was directed by a source to an unpublicized but publicly accessible page on the Secretary of State’s Web site. What I found was an under-construction version of the long-delayed project to improve the Web site’s campaign reporting and disclosure databases.
Eager for the site to be unveiled to the public (I listed it last week among five ethics reforms New Mexico needs), I greedily perused the site.
I was impressed.
Campaign finance reports, lobbyist reports and public officials’ disclosure reports were easily accessible through a searchable database that brought up basic information on the Web page and links to PDF files for those who wanted more detail. I found the new site to be simple and user-friendly -- a huge improvement over the cumbersome site the secretary of state currently offers the public.
But by Sunday morning the site was no longer online. It was replaced with an error message. I don’t remember what it said on Sunday, but today it says this: “Service Temporarily Unavailable, The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.”
On Monday, I asked the office of Secretary of State Mary Herrera what happened. State Elections Director A.J. Salazar, who is in charge of the project, said the site was taken down because the office is currently going through a security assessment of its entire Web site.
He said the department of information technology is requiring such an assessment, which hasn’t been done in the secretary of state’s office in recent memory. With candidates and others being able to input information about their campaign activity into the site’s database, he said the assessment is important to make sure the data can’t be manipulated.
As for the site, he said what I saw is something that’s still in the development phase and not yet ready for testing.
“What you’re seeing is just basically a snapshot of what we hope to have,” Salazar said, adding that it’s “really not complete.”
He said he hopes the new site is ready for testing sometime this summer and, when it is, he will invite me and other members of the media to try it out. And he said he hopes it’s ready to “go live” later this summer, or, at least, “certainly before” the next candidate reporting deadline in October.
I’ll believe that when it happens. But after seeing the site, I have a bit more optimism.
Labels: ethics reform, Open government, State government
3 Comments:
Sounds like a step in the right direction Heath. However, there's still more they could do. I'd love to see them post the information in an open database that others could use to create new tools and improve access. PDFs are great, but the raw numbers would be even better.
If this is even close to ready why is the Secretary of State so intent on hiding it. Let the public see what their tax dollars are paying for!
Most software companies release alpha and betas why can't the Secretary of State, what is she hiding??? We should demand it!!!!
It would be helpful if they could at least make the form for the Oct 11, 2009 report available. I would like to enter donations/expenses as they occur, not have to rush at the last minute.
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