Luzerne County, the good guys

Sometimes we have to give credit when a public official does something in the public intererest. I made a suggestion a few months ago that Luzerne County should put campaign finance reports online. Now we have it, almost:

We are now well on our way to having the active campaign finance committee reports online. We are already better than 15% complete with the postings which are immediately available for public inspection and downloading.

This is the last goal that I set back in 2004 upon assuming the duties of Luzerne County Director of Elections, though I’m sure we’ll have our work cut out in the months that lay ahead this presidential-election year.

I trust you’ll find this newest addition of publically-accessible government documents on the Internet will eventually round out and complete the Bureau of Elections website, but please review what’s already been posted and feel free to offer your insight.

This is the first, I’m aware of, that a county in Pennsylvania will now join the ranks of open campaign finance disclosure on the Internet together with the federal and state governments, both of which have been doing so for a number of years.

We will be announcing it formally at the Board of Elections meeting later this month and hope to move the project from the development stage to final completion by the end of March 2008.

Here’s the direct link:

http://www.luzernecounty.org/county/departments_agencies/bureau_of_elections/online-access-to-campaign-finance-reports

Thanks…have a good evening.

Leonard