TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: July 1, 1996
RE: Electronic Filing Legislation to be heard July 3rdAssembly Bill 1026, authored by Assembly Member Bruce McPherson (R-Santa Cruz) will be considered by the Senate Elections Committee when it meets this week. Here are the hearing details:
Senate Elections Committee Hearing
Wednesday, July 3rd, 1996
9:30 a.m.
California State Capitol, Room 3191The committee's calendar is quite full - at least 15 bills will be considered at the hearing. Committee members include Chairman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), Vice-Chairman Bill Craven (R-Oceanside), and Senators Dan Boatwright (D-Concord), Henry Mello (D-Watsonville), and Bob Beverly (R-Long Beach). Please scroll to the end of this message for directions on how to get to the Capitol.
Electronic filing, as many of you know, is the first step required to make political disclosure records, such as campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures available on the Internet in an accurate, affordable and timely manner.
ELECTRONIC FILING THRESHOLDS
One of the issues that may come up during the hearing is the issue of thresholds, so I would like to provide some background on this important issue.In considering an electronic filing system, it is necessary to determine an appropriate filing threshold so that filers who raise or spend smaller amounts may be allowed to continue filing their disclosure reports on paper, as electronic filing may pose somewhat of a hardship on such campaigns. The question then becomes: what is an appropriate electronic filing threshold?
The Secretary of State's Electronic Filing Advisory Panel, upon which I served, recommended that the filing threshold be set at $5,000; in other words, any candidate who raised or spent a total $5,000 or more in a calendar year would be required to file electronically. This low threshold would ensure that all relevant political data would be available online, and would also help the Secretary of State's office move quickly to an entirely digital system, rather than having to maintain a paper filing system for a large number of filers, as a higher threshold would require.
$5,000 is also the threshold in San Francisco, which mandated an electronic filing system in 1993. So far, none of the campaigns have had trouble complying with the low threshold, according to San Francisco Registrar of Voters Germaine Wong.
When Secretary of State Bill Jones' sponsored bill, AB 2546 (Speier) was introduced, the threshold was increased to $30,000. As I understand it, the concern was that a lower threshold just wouldn't have made it through the Legislature. As it was, the threshold in the Speier bill was bumped up to $50,000 in its first committee hearing in Assembly Elections, by an amendment offered by Assembly Member Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). Lee's amendment also would have required that incumbents file electronically regardless of the amount they raise or spend.
When Bruce McPherson amended his bill, AB 1026, he lowered the threshold again, this time down to $25,000. But his bill does not provide for free software, and the concern now apparently is that without free software, this threshold will provide a hardship for some campaigns. I have heard some discussion that the threshold may be bumped up to somewhere around $250,000.
FREE SOFTWARE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE
The threshold issue is somewhat tied to the software issue, about which, I fear, the Legislature may be somewhat misguided. The concept of freeware or shareware is not one that is widely understood in the Capitol.The good news is that SDR Technologies, which designs, produces and sells political disclosure software, is prepared to make its software available FOR FREE through the California Voter Foundation if electronic filing legislation is passed. SDR offers a full range of programs, for both PCs and Macs, for all types of filers - campaigns, recipient committees, ballot measure committees and major donors. We are still working out the arrangements of the deal, but hopefully the availability of free filing software will mitigate some of the issues that keep stalling progress on electronic filing.
MORE INFO AVAILABLE ON THE WEB
Our new political disclosure reform site is almost ready to go, but in the meantime the California Voter Foundation is making available some vital information that will help inform the electronic filing discussion. These resources include a collection of news stories recently published on this subject, an archive of all of past electronic filing updates that I've written, and a report by the Center for Responsive Politics, titled "Plugging in the Public" which provides an invaluable, state-by-state perspective on progress in the area of electronic filing. Please remember that these resources have not been quite "dressed up" yet, but I thought it would be better to make them available as soon as possible. You can find this collection of resources at the following address:
http://www.calvoter.org/cvf/disclosure
DIRECTIONS TO THE CAPITOL
If you would like to attend Wednesday's hearing, here are some basic directions to the Capitol:From the West: Take I-80 east, and as you approach Sacramento, be sure to stay on Business 80 (now called the "Capital City Freeway"). Take the Downtown Sacramento/Jefferson Blvd. exit, stay on the exit (don't take Jefferson) until it dumps you off onto Capitol. Travel up Capitol, turn left on Tenth, and at the next block is a public parking lot, with an entrance on the right side of the street.
(Sorry but I'm not too certain about the exits coming from other directions, so please consult a map if you are traveling from the south, north or east.)
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
916/325-2120
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