Johnson County auditor shows the value of a good government website

As many Iowa politicos were staying up past their bedtimes tracking local election results on Tuesday, Johnson County observers might have been tucked soundly in bed. Almost all of their races had full unofficial results posted within half an hour of the polls closing at 8 p.m.

It’s a credit to election workers, a small but important way to keep citizens engaged with the democratic process. Easy and prompt access to public information helps instill trust in local government.

The Johnson County Auditor’s Office is one of the best at this. Auditor Travis Weipert’s staff recently completed restoring its historical election archives to the county website, a huge asset to journalists and the public.

Decades of local voter data was taken down earlier this year as part of a website redesign, supposedly pursuant to Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. It struck us as absurd to offer less information in the name of accessibility. The Gazette wrote a letter to county officials, urging them to keep the full set of records available.

The Johnson County election archives — now once again available at johnsoncountyiowa.gov — are the most extensive in the state. They include state and federal results from the 1970s through today and some historical results dating back to 1896. It is a cache of valuable information not only for journalists seeking to provide historical context, but also for political activists, concerned citizens, students and scholars.

In what some are calling a post-truth political world, reliable information about government and politics is vital. In a vacuum of information, misinformation will fill in.

This is part of a broader issue of government accessibility and transparency online. Anyone who has been following local government long enough has been through at least one website redesign. Information and functionality seem to disappear, though often they’ve just been buried under some counterintuitive series of links.

As local governments adapt to changing technology, they should be sure to keep access to public information at the forefront.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com