The Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office has partnered with MapLight, a civic technology firm, to build out a replacement for the city’s “outdated” campaign finance reporting application. 

MapLight is a nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that “reveals the influence of money in politics, informs and empowers voters, and advances reforms that promote a more responsive democracy,” according to the company website. 

The application will help administer Denver’s campaign finance regulations, provide “in-depth” search functions for the public and implement the Fair Elections Fund, a public campaign finance program created with overwhelming voter support in 2018 to match municipal candidates’ contributions of $50 or less at a ratio of 900%.

The new system will also have a dashboard that “better” displays campaign spending information to the public. In addition, the application will integrate with the City’s Geographic Information System and cashiering systems to cut out manual processes that office employees currently use to track independent expenditures, fines and contributions.

“As Clerk and Recorder for the City and County of Denver, I am dedicated to providing Denver residents with one of the most powerful tools in campaign finance: disclosure,” López said in a statement. “Our residents deserve to know who is funding their candidates, speaking to them about local issues, and urging them to vote a certain way on their ballots. 

“I expect the new MapLight system to become the cornerstone for a new transparency website that lets visitors track campaign contributions, gifts to city officers, financial disclosures, and lobbyist disclosures,” López said.

Denver’s new campaign finance system is expected to launch in the second half of 2021, according to López’s office.

Contracting with MapLight is the second step López has taken to strengthen the city’s campaign finance regulations. The first was hiring a full-time campaign finance administrator, which occurred shortly after López was elected in 2019. The administrator will be using the MapLight application to review reports for noncompliance and to begin “proactively” auditing reports, according to López’s office.

“Transparency is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy and in today’s world that means user-friendly, online information about how political campaigns are funded,” Daniel G. Newman, MapLight president and co-founder, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be able to bring a robust, modern campaign finance system to the City and County of Denver to promote a transparent, accountable government.

According to the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, the city currently has five candidates seeking the minimum number of qualifying contributions to qualify for matching funds. López’s office is expecting a large increase in the number of candidates running for office in 2023 “due to both the Fund’s existence and the open Mayoral contest.”

The first payments will be made to qualified candidates in August of 2022.