PIERRE - A West Coast coalition that studies campaign finance
laws has given South Dakota a failing grade.
South Dakota was among 14 states that flunked when it comes to
the strength of disclosure laws, for lacking an electronic filing
program and for acceptable access to campaign finance information,
according to the "Grading State Disclosure."
"Reports can be browsed in PDF but itemized data cannot be
sorted, searched or downloaded, which is the main reason South
Dakota received an F for disclosure content accessibility again in
2007," the report said.
The California Voter Foundation, Center for Governmental
Studies and UCLA School of Law collaborated on the project.
The coalition said South Dakota's grade should improve
considerably next year because of changes that were made this year
in campaign disclosure laws at the urging of Secretary of State
Chris Nelson.
Candidates now have to report in more detail and they can be
fined for being tardy.
