Georgia will spend $7.1 million to replace a fairly new campaign finance reporting system that state officials acknowledge isn’t working well for anyone.
The state recently awarded the contract to WSD Digital, a Connecticut firm doing business as ReFrame Solutions. It will develop a system that allows political candidates, public officials, lobbyists and others to file reports that are searchable by the public.
The current system is only a few years old. But David Emadi, executive secretary of the state ethics commission, said it doesn’t work well for those filing or searching for reports.
“Ultimately, the current system is not meeting the state’s needs and the public’s needs,” Emadi said. “After 3 ½ years of a system that wasn’t meeting our expectations, everyone recognized that we needed to make a long-term change.”
Georgia requires public officials and candidates for public office to disclose campaign contributions and some details of their financial holdings. It requires lobbyists to disclose their spending. And it allows the public to review that information — a key bit of transparency that allows citizens to assess who’s trying to influence public officials.
The state replaced its old system in 2020, purchasing a system from the Louisiana-based software company Civix. But those who use it say it has never worked well.
Candidates and lobbyists found it difficult to use. The public found it more difficult to search, and earlier this year a nonprofit group discovered some reports on last-minute campaign contributions weren’t appearing in the system.
After spending about $1.5 million on that system to date, the state opted to scrap it and find another. The $7.1 million cost of the new system includes 10 years of maintenance.
“We obviously want to be fiscally conservative with tax dollars,” Emadi said. “But we also want to make sure we’re getting a product that works for the public and works for the users.”
Emadi expects the new system to be operating by the end of next year — in time for the 2026 election cycle to kick off in earnest.
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