Aug. 30--Candidate campaign treasurers who don't want to fill out finance forms by hand can use the online Campaign Finance Reporting System.

The system isn't new -- former Secretary of State Betty Ireland introduced the "new and improved" version in her 2006 campaign finance guide -- but it's not yet widely used.

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said that for 2008, 1,719 candidates filed; 39 percent, 686, filed online; 61 percent, 1,033, stuck with paper.

Among legislators from Monongalia, Preston and Marion counties, in races from 2006-'08, only Delegate Linda Longstreth, D-Marion, filed online.

Tennant reported a turnaround for the 2010 elections: 119 have filed precandidacy papers, and 57 of them -- 47 percent -- will file online.

The system is also available to political action committees (PACs).

Tennant, who used the system for her 2008 campaign, said that the feedback she's received reflects her views on the system's advantages.

"I like the ease of it -- it's all right out in front of you," she said.

The online system adds numbers as you go; prohibits a treasurer from entering a donation of more than the legal $1,000; and for donations above $250, automatically sends the treasurer to a page requiring the donor's address.

Filing online offers "the potential to save a great amount of time and resources, which in turn saves the candidate and their treasurer time, and saves the taxpayer money as well, because you don't have as many people touching it on our end."

Longstreth has said that she finds online filing more convenient, but also enjoys working with paper. She said she hasn't decided what she'll do next time she runs.

The Fiscal Year 2010 Executive Budget shows that Tennant projected 50 percent usage of the online system for 2010 and is aiming to have 75 percent participation -- by candidates and PACs -- by 2012.

But the system isn't without bugs, Tennant said. The main problem is the system went through several variations, each from a different software developer, each piggybacking on the previous developer's work and programming language.

That made for "more of a Bandaid approach" to fixing problems rather than a full correction, she said.

Right now, they're "trying to redesign the whole system from the ground up."

The chief obstacle is lack of money. She said she knows the state is facing financial challenges, but her office needs more technology funds.

Tennant's office has asked for $1.2 million for that and other services, but would welcome more. "There's so much more that we would love to do."

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