|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Connecticut’s new campaign finance reporting system
will let the sun shine on political activities
Hartford, CT – Connecticut’s new electronic campaign reporting system, eCRIS, will make it easier for campaigns to file online and for the people of Connecticut to keep an eye on political activities.
The new system, designed and implemented by the State Elections Enforcement Commission, addresses a number of problems that plagued the state’s previous campaign reporting system, which was often hampered by stability issues and technological limitations. ECRIS not only offers a number of user-friendly features to assist campaigns in filing their required reports, it provides a simple and efficient means for state officials, the media and the public to monitor campaign activities.
“For years, Connecticut has received nearly failing grades for its campaign finance information system,” said Andy Sauer, executive director of Connecticut Common Cause. “With the improved functionality of eCRIS, Connecticut can expect to see its grades in campaign finance disclosure improve.”
For the past five years, Connecticut has received “D’s” from the Campaign Disclosure Project, an organization that aims to bring greater transparency and accountability to money in state politics through assessments of state disclosure laws and programs. Among the areas the campaign disclosure project found fault with were the limited options for searching campaign contributions and the inability to download campaign finance information. Prior to improvements in the state’s campaign finance information system, citizens interested in political contributions made to any state campaign could only download a complete listing of contributions in a format not easily imported into a database or spreadsheet application.
In the eCRIS system, information will be stored in a user-accessible database and available for users to download.
The improved system will provide the Citizens’ Election Program the ability to examine and approve in a timely fashion all qualifying contributions for candidates applying for election grants under the state’s new public financing for political campaigns, and to better monitor expenditures of participating campaigns to enforce the proper usage of election grants.
The new system will also feature a number of user-friendly features to assist campaigns in filing their campaign finance reports. Dialogue windows will pop up, cautioning users about incomplete information or warning them about potential errors, and a number of safeguards will be in place to ensure the stability of the system and prevent any loss of data.
“Having a functional and stable digital campaign finance reporting system benefits everyone in Connecticut,” Sauer said. “State officials, whose job it is to ensure the compliance of state campaign finance laws, will be able to review campaign contributions and expenditures in real time. Media and other watchful members of the public will have timely access to campaign finance reports. And, campaigns will have a user-friendly online reporting tool that enables them to file their reports and meet their reporting deadlines.”
Although there is no state law requiring all campaigns to file reports electronically , Connecticut Common Cause believes that once candidates and campaign treasurers see the benefits the system provides both to the campaign and the people of Connecticut, they will choose to file online.
“Who likes to fill out reports by hand, on paper?” Sauer asked. “There were a number of issues with the old campaign finance information system, especially in the area of stability. This improved system addresses those problems and gives both campaigns and the people of Connecticut a campaign finance reporting system they can count on.”
X X X
CONTACT: Andy Sauer
Executive Director
860.549.1220
860.539.6846 (cell)
|
