Public Records Act. The Public Records Act (PRA), enacted in 1972 as part of Initiative 276, requires all state and local government agencies to make all public records available for public inspection and copying, unless certain statutory exemptions apply. Upon receiving a request for records, the public agency must respond within five business days in one of five ways:
Over 500 specific references in the PRA or other statutes remove certain information from application of the PRA, provide exceptions to the public disclosure and copying of certain information, or designate certain information as confidential. The provisions requiring public records disclosure must be interpreted liberally, while the exemptions are interpreted narrowly to effectuate the general policy favoring disclosure.
Election Security Information. Certain information pertaining to election security is exempt from public disclosure requirements. This information includes:
Information or records pertaining to election security breaches is not exempt from disclosure requirements, except under existing security breach and reporting exemptions. A voter's signature, phone number, and e-mail address on a ballot return envelope, declaration, or signature correction form, whether on an original or copied document, are exempt from public disclosure requirements. Elections officials may disclose this information for official purposes.
State Data and Reporting Standards. Under legislation passed in 2016, the Secretary of State (SOS) develops statewide data and reporting standards for how election data are maintained and reported by county auditors, focused on improving the types and use of data files, public access to election data, and data compilation from all counties for research and analysis. The standards are public, and the SOS makes ongoing analysis of whether counties are in compliance with the current standards.
Records Requests. Requests for records from, or existing standard reports generated by, the statewide voter registration database must be submitted to the SOS rather than a county auditor. If the county auditor receives a request for records or reports generated by the statewide voter registration database, the auditor must respond within five business days to refer the requestor to the SOS.
Exemptions. If a private entity, upon submitting records of its infrastructure to elections officials, accompanies that submission with a statement that disclosure of the records would increase risk to the integrity of election operations or infrastructure, the records are exempt from public disclosure requirements for 25 years after submission.
Images, copies, photographs, or cast vote records of voted ballots are exempt from public disclosure requirements during storage through destruction.
State Data and Reporting Standards. The requirement that the SOS develop statewide standards for how election data are maintained and reported by county auditors is removed.
PRO: As a result of misinformation and the spread of election lies, administrators have been drowning in public records requests in recent years. The requests tend to be complicated and require legal consultation because they involve sensitive information. Many are strategic, targeted attempts to distract and overwhelm elections offices. This bill will coordinate responses at a central point, ensuring requests are handled consistently, and protect election security systems from cyberattacks.
OTHER: We have concerns with the provision requiring requestors to re-submit requests with the Secretary of State rather than having county auditors pass the requests along without restarting the 5-day response clock. We are also concerned about ballots being inaccessible during the storage period, as this could hamper press coverage of the process of ballot rehabilitation and curing.