The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) The people of California enacted one of the nation’s most comprehensive campaign and lobbying financial disclosure laws when they voted for Proposition 9, the Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative statute.
(b) Public access to campaign and lobbying disclosure information is a vital and integral component of a fully informed electorate.
(c) Advances in technology have made it necessary for the State of California to develop a new, data-driven online filing and disclosure system that provides public disclosure of campaign finance and lobbying information in a user-friendly, easily understandable format.
(d) Members of the public, including voters, journalists, and researchers, should be able to access campaign finance and lobbying information in a robust and flexible manner, including through searches and visual displays such as graphs and maps.
(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 845, Sec. 1. (SB 1349) Effective January 1, 2017.)