LOD: Let the Sunshine In

Democracy North Carolina today awarded 22 state legislators its Sunshine Award for the superior quality of their campaign disclosure reports filed during the 2010 election cycle. The first reports for the 2012 election are due on Friday – it’s the beginning of a super-sized, record breaking cycle. The 22 winners were the only legislators who met several criteria described in a press release that also highlights problems with the lack of resources for auditing reports. Because of staff cutbacks, thousands of reports filed with the State Board of Elections have not been reviewed for compliance with the basic requirements of NC’s disclosure law. The reports for House Speaker Thom Tillis lacked the occupational descriptions for dozens of his donors, going back to 2006, but it turns out his campaign treasurer didn’t realize that information was part of the public filing. Once notified by our questions, he filed amendments with the missing information. Other committees routinely leave out addresses for donors or the purpose of payments or make bigger mistakes that could be corrected by requiring electronic reporting for quicker public access and staff review.