Think online sunshine, act locally

Online sunshine isn't just for state government.

It's tempting for a local official to think that keeping public records in a three-ring binder in a downtown office building is good enough. After all, why would anyone in another city want to see the mayor's campaign finance records?

Except when the mayor's running for governor.

Dome — and many other reporters, bloggers and citizens — is curious about where Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory has raised his money in the last year. (Especially since he won't have to file a campaign finance report for his gubernatorial run for a while yet.)

But those records are at the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections in Charlotte.

As Jim Morrill has noted, the county's elections director is considering putting the records online to make it a "24-7 public records office."

Unfortunately, that would only be for records going forward.