Over on the AJC, retired reporter Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered writes of the ongoing difficulties of obtaining political campaign disclosures for various Atlanta metro candidates.

“Last week, I paid $6 to park and pick up disclosures for Atlanta’s mayor and City Council.

The municipal clerk’s office is supposed to open at 8:30 a.m. I sat on the floor outside until someone unlocked the door 20 minutes later. Then I was told that the guy who could burn the files to a CD wasn’t in, so I needed to come back later.”

But as stated by Walls in his report, Georgia has had a vague law on the books since 2001 that has required municipalities to make disclosures available by “electronic means”. And guess what? The vagueness of the law allows those unwilling to skirt posting disclosures online in the sunlight of the internet.

Now there’s a bill currently before the House, which would mandate that all disclosures be reported to the State Ethics Office, who already posts disclosures online. Walls’ report says that municipalities objecting to the bill are already stating they can’t afford computers and internet.

Here in Decatur, I had no problem getting campaign disclosures from the city this past fall. A spark of inspiration and a couple emails and I was in business. But for residents without a responsive city government and annoying bloggers, such an online system is absolutely mandatory.

And while a lame excuse today may delay the sunlight another year or two, it’s a losing battle. There are certainly negatives to being plugged into an endless web of info, but giving more info to residents isn’t one of them. It may create new challenges to our traditional institutions, hesitant to cede control, but it’s already too late. This potential law was conceived with the internet more than 40 years ago.