Off The Beat: Handwritten Disclosures — In the 21st Century?

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An iPad, pricey DVD sets, trips to Taiwan, lots of food. These were among the more than $137,000 in gifts lawmakers accepted during the last year.

Yet, Civil Beat found that many Hawaii lawmakers filled out their disclosure forms with a pen.

Given how pervasive computers are, one would think that it would be the norm for disclosure documents to be uploaded electronically, just the way we upload photos and videos today. Couldn’t the state be thinking about documents in a 21st century way? Why make people do work that’s unnecessary?

As is, the disclosures are not searchable — and handwritten forms make that even harder to achieve.

It’s also curious why we let lawmakers file their disclosures so late in the year.

They were due on June 30. That’s more than a month after the legislative session ended and long past any vote that could appear to have been influenced by a gift.

We live in an era when we can send information to each other instantly. If transparency is the goal, why not require more timely disclosures? It would be easy to comply if we had a more up-to-date electronic system.

Here’s a copy of the handwritten disclosure filed by state Sen. Mele Carroll, which lists an iPad worth $500.

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