TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: April 15, 1997
RE: California moves forward on electronic filingHi Folks:
Lots of news to report on electronic filing. In the past few days, major advances have been made to bring about computerized, immediate online access to California political disclosure records. The California Legislature is moving on several bills to mandate electronic filing. Yesterday, California Secretary of State Bill Jones has announced plans to implement a voluntary electronic filing system as well. This is a crucial development because, even if the Legislature passes a mandatory electronic filing system this year, the soonest that system can come online is for the 1999-2000 election cycle. (This is due to the fact that the state has set up an elaborate procurement process and oversight for technology initiatives to try to prevent disasters like the one that occurred at the DMV.)
The voluntary system will be online for the 1998 election, which will give everyone involved in the disclosure process - be they candidates, treasurers, software vendors, journalists or citizens, and most importantly, the filing agency -- a chance to experiment with this new process. 1998's voluntary system is being coordinated by SDR Technologies, which has put together electronic filing systems for several other jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Hawaii, and the Federal Elections Commission. The Secretary of State plans to spend no more than $50,000 on the voluntary system (so, for those who are wondering how much SDR will profit from this venture, the answer is not much).
This update will provide a recap of yesterday's news conference and committee hearing, and a preview of tomorrow's Senate Elections hearing, which is being carried LIVE on the California Channel.
RECAP OF SECRETARY OF STATE BILL JONES' NEWS CONFERENCE
The Secretary of State announced his plans for a voluntary electronic filing system at a news conference at the State Capitol yesterday. On stage with Secretary Jones were California Common Cause's new executive director, Jim Knox, who also issued a news release praising the Secretary of State's decision (call California Common Cause at 916-443-1792 to get a copy of their statement). I also spoke in support of the voluntary system at the news conference, and said that the California Voter Foundation is prepared to do our part to encourage candidates to participate in the new 1998 voluntary electronic filing program. Several news organizations produced stories on yesterday's events, most of which you can find online - the Sacramento Bee (www.sacbee.com), the San Jose Mercury News (www.sjmercury.com) and Wired News (www.wired.com) are just a few. The Secretary of State's release from yesterday is also at the bottom of this message.
YESTERDAY'S ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS HEARING
Later in the day, the Assembly Elections Committee took up AB 63/Cunneen, which passed out of the committee on a bi-partisan 5-0 vote. The five members voting to support AB 63 included Committee Chairman Edward Vincent (D-Inglewood), Vice- Chairman Peter Frusetta (R-Tres Pinos), Tom Bordonaro (R-Paso Robles), Roderick Wright (D-South Central L.A.) and Bruce Thompson (R-Fallbrook). Committee Members Kevin Shelley and Lou Papan were absent when AB 63 was taken up. (I've been told that Papan had asked Carole Migden to take his seat on the committee for the day, but she too was absent when AB 63 came up.)
There were many people present at the hearing prepared to testify, but unfortunately the committee's chairman, Edward Vincent, was eager to finish with the hearing because he apparently had some other engagement to attend.
Those attending the hearing to testify included Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, Jim Knox of Common Cause, Andy Igrejas of CalPIRG, Bob Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies, David Jefferson of Digital Equipment Corp., Dick Ratcliffe of the Institute for Governmental Advocates, Don Trujillo of MALDEF, Tony Miller and myself.
Several people gave brief testimony describing their concerns with the harassment and commercial use provisions contained in AB 63, and author Jim Cunneen is apparently willing to take amendments to his bill to address their concerns. Dick Ratcliffe said that his association of lobbyists was generally supportive of the idea of electronic filing, but he also expressed his concerns about the unavailability of lobbying disclosure software on the free market.
The only testimony given in opposition came from Alex Alanis of the Fair Political Practices Commission, which apparently feels that because their agency is the one with the jurisdiction to design the disclosure forms, the proposal to run the system through the Secretary of State's office undermines their authority. (Some of you may not be aware that there is a long-standing turf battle between the state's two election agencies, the Secretary of State's office and the Fair Political Practices Commission.) The FPPC's lobbyist also stated their interest in having some oversight of the new electronic fling process.
TOMORROW'S SENATE ELECTIONS HEARING
Wednesday, April 16
9:30 a.m., CA State Capitol, Room 3191
TELEVISED LIVE ON THE CALIFORNIA CHANNELTomorrow the Senate Elections Committee will take up the other two mandatory electronic filing bills, SB 7/Kopp and SB 49/Karnette. Many of the electronic filing proponents will be returning the the Capitol tomorrow to testify on these bills, including Secretary of State Bill Jones. The committee discussion is likely to be far more meaningful and deliberative than what we saw in Assembly Elections, and I encourage interested citizens and journalists alike to attend tomorrow's hearing. If you can't make it, you may still watch the events live on TV if your cable system offers the California Channel (visit www.calchannel.com to find out).
Both SB 49 and SB 7 have been recently amended, and the elections committee staff has completed the analyses. They are available through the committee office at 916-445-2601.
That's all the news for now. For those of you looking for past CVF-NEW electronic filing updates, they will be available in the Digital Sunlight Web site at http://www.digitalsunlight.org.
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
916/325-2120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Beth Miller
Alfie Charles
916/653-6575Monday
April 14, 1997
Jones Announces Electronic Filing and Internet Posting of Campaign Financing Information for the 1998 Elections Voluntary Demonstration Project to Include Lobbyist Directory; Jones Urges Passage of SB 7 for Mandatory Electronic Filing Program
SACRAMENTO -- Calling it "the most significant campaign reform of the last 25 years," Secretary of State Bill Jones today announced that his office will implement a voluntary electronic filing demonstration program with immediate Internet access to campaign financing disclosure information for the 1998 elections. The result of a public-private partnership with SDR Technologies, Inc., the demonstration project for the 1998 general election will accept electronic filings from all candidate-controlled committees for immediate posting on the Internet and will allow for financial disclosure information to be queried by monetary and in-kind contributions, expenditures and loans.
A tracking system for all late contribution reports (LCR's) detailing those contributions received during the 16-day period before election day, which must be disclosed within 24-hours of receipt of the contribution, will be operational for both the 1998 June Primary and November General Elections. This includes candidate-controlled and ballot measure committees.
"Electronic filing and Internet access to campaign disclosure documents has been one of the highest priorities of my administration - beginning with the Electronic Filing Task Force and report in 1995 to sponsoring legislation both last session and again this year. Our goal has been to give the people of California real and immediate access to political campaign contribution and expenditure information," Jones said.
"Today, that goal becomes a reality thanks to SDR Technologies, Inc., a company that has been building new roads on the information superhighway long before most state governments recognized the need for an electronic, on-line finance reporting system," Jones added.
"This partnership would not have been possible without the vision of Secretary of State Bill Jones," said Kelly Kimball, president of SDR Technologies, Inc. "We've been involved in the debate over electronic filing in California for several years now and I believe that it is because of Secretary Jones' fierce determination and commitment to implement an electronic filing and Internet disclosure system that California voters will have this much-needed information at the click of a computer mouse for the 1998 elections."
Jones and Kimball were joined at today's announcement by representatives from the California Voter Foundation, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, Consumer's Union and the Newspaper Publishers Association, all of whom have long advocated for an electronic filing and Internet disclosure system for campaign financing reports.
"Electronic filing is the most convenient, timely and affordable way to achieve computerization of and Internet access to campaign finance data. The California Voter Foundation applauds Secretary of State Bill Jones' bold leadership and commitment to improve public access to campaign contributions and expenditures," said Kim Alexander, executive director of the California Voter Foundation. "We wholeheartedly support his efforts, and will be actively encouraging candidates to participate in the voluntary filing program."
Don Armstrong, director of West Coast Operations for SDR Technologies, Inc. and the project manager for the design and implementation of the California electronic reporting system, noted that no new computer software will be necessary for candidates to file electronically.
"SDR Technologies will offer a file or data conversion utility program that can be downloaded from SDR's web site (www.sdr.com), free of charge, to enable vendors and their candidates to use currently-existing software to file their reports electronically in a standardized reporting format," Armstrong said. "In addition, as part of our partnership agreement, SDR Technologies will provide telephonic and web page support to assist filers and answer any questions, all at no cost to the filer."
Continuing his commitment to full public disclosure of the money that powers the political process, Secretary Jones also announced that the Lobbyist Directory, a publication of his office that lists lobbyists and lobbyist employers, will also be available on-line on the Secretary of State's home page - www.ss.ca.gov.
"To paraphrase this year's popular catch-phrase - we're not only going to 'show you the money,' we're going to show you the people behind the money," Jones said.
Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) was also present to urge passage of his bill SB 7, the electronic filing legislation sponsored by the Secretary of State, which would develop a permanent electronic filing and on-line disclosure of campaign finance reports and mandate compliance by all candidates and committees.
"I congratulate Secretary Jones on moving California that much closer to a permanent electronic filing system with this innovative public-private partnership," said Kopp. "I hope that my colleagues in the Legislature will pay close attention to this demonstration project - to see first-hand the enormous benefits such a system provides to the voters of California. It is for that reason that we must concurrently pass SB 7 to ensure that electronic filing is here to stay."
Sen. Kopp's bill, SB 7, will be heard in the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee on Wednesday, April 16, 1997.
The electronic filing legislation is a critical component of Secretary Jones' overall campaign reform plan for California, which also includes instituting a "good cause" policy for fine waiver requests for late filings of financial disclosure reports and proposing legislation to increase the monetary penalty for late filing (SB 24, Kopp, 1995-96 Legislative session; SB 79 as introduced, Kopp, 1997 Legislative session) of financial disclosure reports.
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