The Capitol Building in Denver, Coloardo. Photo by Vanessa Velázquez via Unsplash.
The City and County of Denver launched SearchLight Denver today, a searchable campaign finance and disclosure database built in partnership with MapLight. The database will provide Denver residents with unparalleled access to extensive campaign finance data.
The tool is now available to users at www.denvergov.org/campaignfinance.
The new tool modernizes Denver’s campaign finance records for public access and ensures ease of use for candidates, campaigns, and the media. The application includes standard reporting functions for campaigns, and also provides a dashboard that better displays campaign contributions or funding information to website visitors and the media.
“We must provide expanded transparency for the public to better understand who is funding electoral efforts in Denver,” said Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul D. López. “SearchLight Denver is one of the most advanced systems for a municipality in the country, bringing everything into one place, where it’s transparent, searchable, and current.”
The second phase of the SearchLight Denver project, expected to go live later this year, will expand the tool’s capabilities to include an ethics portal. This added functionality will feature an index of lobbyist information and financial disclosures. Phase two of the project also includes Spanish translation of the site.
“The new SearchLight Denver system marks an important step to support a transparent and accountable democracy,” said MapLight President and Co-Founder, Daniel G. Newman. “We’re thrilled to have partnered with the City and County of Denver to provide user-friendly, online information about how campaigns are funded.”
The new campaign finance system in Denver builds upon MapLight’s previous successful civic technology projects, including work with the California Secretary of State to build open source tools that help Californians see the money behind their elections — such as Power Search and the Quick Guide to Proposition — as well as Voter’s Edge California, a comprehensive guide to California elections in partnership with the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund that serves two million visitors each election year.
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