BOISE, Idaho — The Nov. 7 elections are coming up, and election transparency is top of mind for the Idaho Secretary of State's Office.
The office released its new campaign finance and lobbying dashboard on Wednesday, which lists all the mayoral and city council candidates. The aim of the dashboard is to give voters a better understanding of candidates.
"We are excited to present a lot of data that maybe hasn't been publicly accessible before," Data visualization specialist Gabe Osterhout said.
On the new dashboard, right next to candidate's names, people can see how much money those candidates have raised and where it comes from. Previously, the data took a lot of time and effort to look through.
"Our hope is just by having these tool, that anybody can explore this data, and they don't have to have a PhD in statistics to really understand it," Osterhout said.
Staff started working on the dashboard a few months ago. Right now, Osterhout said the data only goes back to 2020. But the office will eventually add older data as well as legislative races, statewide races, primary and general elections.
Charlie Hunt, Boise State University political science professor, explored the dashboard Thursday afternoon. He thinks putting all the campaign finance and lobbying data in one place will make it easier for interested Idahoans.
Hunt said this type of data is especially helpful during local elections because candidates are not technically affiliated with a political party.
"You can learn things about that by looking at these donors and the kinds of folks who are donating to these campaigns," Hunt said.
Campaign finance and lobbying data can also show the strength of candidates. He said well-funded campaigns and candidates tend to do better in elections. However, he said the dashboard is helpful, but he is not sure how many people will actually use it to inform their voting decisions.
"The thing we know about those voters who are super engaged is that a lot of times in elections, they've already made up their mind about who they're going to vote for to begin with," he said. "So, this doesn't seem like a kind of tool that is something any regular voter is necessarily going to stumble across in their everyday life."
In addition to streamlining the campaign finance and lobbying information, Osterhout said they are also working on other data tools. That includes visualizing the increased number of registered voters and the number of business filings.
Osterhout encouraged Idahoans to look at the new dashboard. He said staff members are always available to answer questions or take suggestions.
"We really want people to vote," he said. "We don't care who you vote for. But we just want to give citizens every tool in the toolbox to feel confident when they enter the polling place."
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