The National Institute on Money in State Politics gave Colorado an “A” for its campaign finance transparency.

The state received a score of 92.5 — the national average was 77 points — on its practices dealing with direct contributions to candidates, parties and ballot measure committees.

“We worked very hard in Colorado to develop a transparent campaign finance disclosure program,” said Steve Bouey, campaign finance program manager for the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. “We’re continuously striving to leverage technology and other tools to make it easy for citizens to access this important information.

“It’s great to get recognition from a nationally recognized and respected source.”

The Institute released its annual report this week on its website, followthemoney.org.

“Although a handful of states received very high marks, the ‘C’ national average highlights the need for improvements to be made in the vast majority of states in order to ensure the public has timely access to thorough information about who is funding state campaigns,” the Institute wrote in the report it released this week.

The Institute’s scoring methodology is based on a set of criteria measuring the disclosure of contributor information, the timeliness and quality of campaign finance data, and public access to the data.

A researcher with the Institute noted about Colorado that “improvements in scores for some questions would require legislative action, and some are subject to budgetary or technological restrictions outside of an agency’s control.”

Maine scored the highest with 100, while Mississippi was the lowest with 37.5 points.

To read more posts by Lynn Bartels, visit her official blog at the Colorado Secretary of State website.