ES&S emails to Secretary of State

Dear Mr. Morisy,

This acknowledges receipt of your request for electronic copies of emails sent to or from Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) (essvote.com) and any member of staff for the Secretary of State between February 1, 2012 and November 7, 2012, including emails concerning discussions of software changes to the Unity voting system software used in Ohio's counties.

Please be assured that this office will endeavor to respond within a reasonable period of time, consistent with the provisions of Ohio Revised Code § 149.43.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you.

Chris

Dear Mr. Morisy,

You requested electronic copies of emails sent to or from Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) (essvote.com) and any member of staff for the Secretary of State between February 1, 2012 and November 7, 2012, including emails concerning discussions of software changes to the Unity voting system software used in Ohio's counties.

Under Ohio's Public Records Act (the "Act"), a proper public records request is one that asks for a specific, existing record. See, e.g., State ex rel. White v. Goldsberry, 85 Ohio St.3d 153, 154, 1999-Ohio-447; Ohio Revised Code § 149.011(G) ("'Records' includes any document, device, or item, regardless of physical form or characteristic, including an electronic record as defined in section 1306.01 of the Revised Code, created or received by or coming under the jurisdiction of any public office of the state or its political subdivisions, which serves to document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the office.); Ohio Revised Code § 149.43(A)(1) (defining "public record").

In contrast, a request for selected information is not a proper request under the Act. See, e.g., State ex rel. Fant v. Tober, 8th Dist No. 63737 (April 28, 1993) ("relator has not established that a governmental unit has the clear legal duty to seek out and retrieve those records which would contain the information of interest to the requester. . . . Rather, it is the responsibility of the person who wishes to inspect and/or copy records to identify with reasonable clarity the records at issue."), aff'd, 68 Ohio St.3d 117, 623 N.E.2d 1202 (1993) <https://a.next.westlaw.com/Link/Document/FullText?findType=Y&serNum=1993231616&pubNum=578&originationContext=document&transitionType=DocumentItem&contextData=(sc.Keycite)> .

Respectfully, your request asks this office to identify records containing selected information, rather than identifying specific records. Please note that this office organizes email correspondence by individual sender, for outgoing correspondence, and by individual recipient, for incoming correspondence. To the extent that you can identify individuals at this office and at ES&S whose email correspondence you are interested in, that would be helpful. Please consider this a request for clarification, and not a denial of your request.

Thank you.

Chris