GOP: Election records have been withheld from Trump

Republicans accuse N.M. secretary of state of being ‘partisan and defiant’

The state Republican Party is accusing New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver of purposely delaying the release of election records requested by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“The Secretary of State’s move is a deliberate effort to keep any evidence of potential issues from the Trump Campaign until after Congress certifies the Electoral College vote on January 6,” state Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce said in a news release Thursday.

“Again, the Secretary of State is partisan and defiant in refusing to uphold and oversee the election integrity,” Pearce added. “There is no transparency of government here.”

Toulouse Oliver’s spokesman said in an email Thursday the Secretary of State’s Office takes great care to respond to records requests in a timely manner and any allegations to the contrary are a “cheap political grab for headlines.”

“Trump filed a lawsuit and then his lawyer, instead of going through the normal discovery process, filed an extremely broad public records request with our Office,” spokesman Alex Curtas said in an email.

“It’s entirely normal procedure for state government agencies to extend the [Inspection of Public Records Act] deadline when receiving overly broad and burdensome requests, as in this instance. They’ve made an end run around the normal discovery process with an overly broad and burdensome records request and then, even though we’ve cooperated with Trump and the state GOP at every turn, they decide to send a partisan press release out on New Year’s Eve after our Office is already closed.”

Trump’s campaign filed a federal lawsuit against Toulouse Oliver’s office in December, alleging the use of drop boxes to collect absentee ballots in the general election violated state law.

Albuquerque attorney Mark J. Caruso — Trump’s retained counsel in New Mexico — provided documents showing he sent Toulouse Oliver a public records request Dec. 16 seeking records in 37 different categories — most related to the state’s Dominion-brand voting system — in an effort to gain information for the lawsuit.

Among other things, the request asks for:

◆ Training manuals related to the state’s voting system.

◆ Contracts and invoices associated with the purchase of the system.

◆ Records of accreditation.

◆ Records showing maintenance of the system.

◆ Communications between the state and the maker of the system.

◆ Testing data and error rates associated with the equipment and software.

◆ Communications with county clerks regarding the system.

◆ Pre- and postelection forensic audits of the election.

◆ Event designer logs for the equipment and software.

◆ Microsoft security patches used for the equipment and software.

◆ Communications with any third party provider of paper used to print ballots for the system.

Documents show the Secretary of State’s Office responded to the request Dec. 21 — the third business day after the request — saying it would provide a response “on or before December 30,” but sent another email Dec. 30 deeming the request “broad and burdensome” and promising a updated response by Jan. 14.

Caruso said he’d sought the records so Trump’s campaign would have information regarding any election irregularities in New Mexico ahead of a Jan. 6 joint session of Congress during which the presidential results will be formalized. After that date, he said, the issue would become moot.

“Do I think it’s politically motivated?” Caruso said Thursday. “Yes, absolutely. She does not want us to have any information by Jan. 6.”

New Mexico’s public records law requires government agencies to produce records in response to requests “immediately” when possible or within 15 days. If the records are not produced within three days, the law says, the agency should respond to the requestor in writing stating when the agency will respond to the request.

But another clause says declaring a request “broad and burdensome” allows the agency to extend the deadlines almost indefinitely as long as the agency is communicating with the requestor. It does, however, give the requestor the option of deeming the request “denied” and pursuing legal remedies if the records are not produced “in a reasonable period of time.”

Caruso acknowledged it’s not unusual for government agencies to take longer than 15 days to fill voluminous requests but said he was disappointed that the secretary of state had failed to provide any of the requested documents by the original deadline.

“I would expect to have a response to those things that she has available,” Caruso said. “Whenever I’ve done this in the past, I would get partial responses, at least some of the available easy stuff. Just to say, ‘No, we are not sending you anything,’ that to me makes it look political.”

Melanie J. Majors, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said Thursday she wasn’t taking sides in the case. But based on her understanding of the sequence of events, it did not appear the Secretary of State’s Office had violated New Mexico’s public records law.

“It seems to me that given the steps the secretary has taken that she is complying with state law,” Majors said.

Majors added that some agencies choose to produce partial records as they are located, but that is not required by law.

Majors said requesters seeking information from the federal government via Freedom of Information Act requests wait an average of two years to have their requests filled.