California declines to update campaign data online

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The secretary of state’s office stood by its decision Friday to deny a request by a coalition of good government groups, research organizations and newspapers to change the way it presents campaign finance data online.

The groups wanted the state’s top elections official to improve the accessibility of public information. Shannan Velayas, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, said making the entire campaign finance database, known as Cal-Access, available for download on one spreadsheet every day would involve “writing new code on a system that is very old.”