Today, while searching for information on political contributions from Denny Elwell and Bill Knapp, I found out just how terrible Iowa’s web access for it is. Just mess around on the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board’s website and you’ll realize how horrible it is. And compare it to other national websites like the FEC’s disclosure site (easy to use, just so much information) or Illinois’ and you’ll see just how far Iowa has to come.
It’s coincidental that as I was perusing the Iowa blogosphere today, I noticed that State 29 had the exact same post idea up thanks to an editorial in the Quad City Times. Check out the editorial here and State’s post here.
Iowa really needs to work on improving the site. Otherwise, it looks like I might be having to make a trip downtown to search through the records. And that will not be a fun step. Maybe fixing this website and the system itself can be part of the infrastructure reform effort that David Yepsen is pushing for.
IECDB’s site is as bad as it can be while still being able to say “it’s online.” A lot of reports are only available as scanned image .pdf’s which take forever to download and are often illegible. IECDB is still thinking like paper.
It really is horrid. State 29 says Fallon should campaign on it; I say Culver should just try and do something about it now since his office is involved. Why not take leadership now instead of saying you’ll work on it if elected governor?
The Ethics Board’s Web site was ranked 7th out of 50 states. To get electronic filing, it takes a change by the legislature. Trust me, we are not thinking “like paper.” I also find it interesting that someone who got in trouble with the Board back in 1998 for failing to file reports is now taking shots at the same entity.
Who did this ranking system you speak of, Charlie? I’d be quite interested in seeing these ranks.
And who are you talking about in your remarks about the person who got in trouble in 1998 and is now taking shots at the board?