february 3, 2014; Nancy Remsen; Burlington Free Press
MONTPELIER — When the first campaign finance reports for the 2014 election are filed in July, the office of the Secretary of State hopes candidates will be able to submit their reports electronically if they want.
Electronic filing of contributions and spending on campaigns would be voluntary, but state officials want this component of the new election system to be ready for testing. The campaign finance application will eventually allow the public to conduct searches across candidate reports, for example, to better understand how money is being spent on elections...
...Robert Millar, executive director of the Vermont Progressive Party, agreed that a searchable database of campaign contributions would increase transparency, but he was disappointed that a new campaign finance law allows bigger contributions. “It will be increased transparency of increased spending.”
