A donation or expense that shows up today could be gone tomorrow.

That ease of use is justified, said Joe Demma, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert.

"If someone submits a report and makes a mistake, they should have an opportunity to correct that mistake," Demma said.

State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff recently had two such vanishing entries.

In early May, the Deseret News reported an April 18 donation of $2,300 from Shurtleff's campaign to John McCain's presidential campaign, which some questioned as a possible violation of Federal Election Commission regulations.

That gift to McCain came from his personal funds, Shurtleff said, and was entered incorrectly on a draft campaign report that somehow became public on the state's Web site.

The entry was quickly deleted, putting an end to further scrutiny.

On March 9, 2007, Shurtleff made a similar out-of-pocket contribution of $2,300 to McCain - the maximum individual gift allowed under the McCain-Feingold Act.

His campaign reports showed a March 8, 2007 donation of $2,300 to ''Scott Rolle for A.G.'' In 2006, Rolle waged an unsuccessful campaign for Maryland's attorney general slot.

After a race has ended, campaigns sometimes continue to raise funds to retire debt.

However, Rolle's campaign manager said no donations came from Utah's Shurtleff in 2007.

When asked last week about the $2,300 gift to Rolle, Shurtleff said the entry was incorrect.

"It did not happen," Shurtleff said.

By Monday, the $2,300 donation to Rolle had disappeared from Shurtleff's electronic report.

Oversight of compliance with Federal Election Commission laws lies beyond the purview of the state elections office, overseen by Herbert, a Utah County Republican.

''We don't regulate FEC code,'' Demma said Monday. ''We don't have a role to play there - we're a warehouse for information.''

"People make mistakes on their reports all the time," Demma added.

How Shurtleff's recent rough draft became public puzzles Demma and others in Herbert's office.

"This is the first I've ever heard of a draft report getting published online," Demma said. "We're looking into that right now to see how that could have happened."

A spokesman for the Shurtleff campaign expressed frustration with the current electronic filing system.

"We're thinking of switching back to paper reports until the problem gets fixed," said Jason Powers, general consultant for Shurtleff's campaign.

Hard copies of reports are currently available to the public at the lieutenant governor's office, but in recent years, paper gave way to electronic postings for most candidates.

At present, nothing is required by law to signify that a change to an online report has occurred, Demma said. That could soon change.

"In the new system, the goal is to have a transaction history where you can access reports before and after a change," Demma said. "It's important to show all activity. Our office believes in transparency."

If all goes well, the software makeover could be up and running before the June 24 primary.

In the meantime, however, the online financial facts are subject to change at the whim of the candidate. And elections officials don't question why.

"I generally don't think people would think less of an elected official if a data entry error occurred," Demma said.

cmckitrick@sltrib.com

* At issue: The state's campaign finance system allows candidates to change, add or delete information at will with no explanation or documentation.

* Recent changes: Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's disclosure has had two recent disappearing entries. The donations were removed after media reports raised questions.

* Ahead: New software should allow people to track changes that are made in the reports.