Women in Politics (FEC) comments

March 8, 2017

Dear Ms. Lipton,

This email acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated March 7, 2017.

Please note that, depending upon the nature of your request, we may be able to respond to you more quickly if you are able to state your request more specifically or narrowly, either in terms of the scope of documents you have requested or by refining the time frame of your request. If you would like to discuss this option or if you have any questions, please contact the FOIA Requester Service Center at (202) 694-1650. Please include the following tracking number in all future correspondence regarding this matter – FOIA Request 2017-062.
Thank you for contacting the Federal Election Commission.

Sincerely,

Christopher Mealy
FOIA Requester Service Center

Ms. Lipton,

Could you please provide to us a phone number where we can reach you? We would like to contact you to ask you to clarify your recently filed FOIA requests of March 7, 2017.

Thanks.

Beryl Lipton

MuckRock
DEPT MR 34528
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Email: requests@muckrock.com

Re: FEC Freedom of Information Act Requests, Nos. 2017-061, 2017-062

Dear Ms. Lipton:

This email concerns your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which were received in our office on March 7, 2017.

I sent you an email on Friday, March 17 asking you to provide us a phone number where we could reach you to clarify your requests, and have not heard back from you yet. We require additional information to search the Agency’s records for responsive documents and may be able to respond more quickly to your requests if you would be able to clarify the particulars of your requests in terms of the scope of documents you have requested or by refining the time frame of your requests. Please contact me to discuss this option at 202-694-1546. You may also respond by email to this communication at FOIA@fec.gov<mailto:FOIA@fec.gov>.

Please be aware that pursuant to the FOIA, the Commission is entitled to toll the time to process your request while awaiting this information. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A)(ii)(I). In all future correspondence regarding your requests, please include the following tracking numbers – FOIA Requests 2017-061 and 2017-062.

Sincerely,

Steve N. Hajjar

FOIA Requester Service Center

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Beryl Lipton

MuckRock
DEPT MR 34528
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Email: requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>; requests@muckrock.com

Re: FEC Freedom of Information Act Request, No. 2017-61, -62

Dear Ms. Lipton:

This email concerns your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which were received in our office on March 7, 2017 from two different email addresses. In your first request, received from requests@muckrock.com, you asked for:

* Any and all reports, research, statistics, recommendations, memorandums, directives, information, or other materials regarding gender-based candidacy or electoral quotas.

In the second request, received from requests@muckrock.com, you requested:

* Any and all comments, complaints, suggestions, and feedback regarding the Public Forum on Women in Politics held by this agency on May 12, 2015.

I sent an email to requests@muckrock.com on March 17, 2017 asking you to provide us a phone number where we could reach you to clarify your requests. I followed up with an email on March 28, 2017 to the other email address associated with your requests, requests@muckrock.com, asking you to contact me to discuss if would be able to clarify the particulars of your requests in terms of the scope of documents you have requested or by refining the time frame of your requests. To date, I have not received a response from you concerning these emails about discussing the scope of your FOIA requests.

Please note that pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A), the time period for the Agency to respond to these FOIA requests will be tolled until we receive a response. Without further clarification, the FEC is unable to process your requests. Therefore, if the FOIA Service Center does not receive a response within 20 business days of the date of this email, we intend to administratively close your requests.

If you have any questions, please contact the FOIA Service Center at FOIA@fec.gov<mailto:FOIA@fec.gov>, or (202) 694-1650. Thank you for contacting the FEC.

Sincerely,

Steve N. Hajjar

FOIA Requester Service Center

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Beryl Lipton

MuckRock
DEPT MR 34528
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Email: requests@muckrock.com; requests@muckrock.com

Re: FEC Freedom of Information Act Request, Nos. 2017-61, 2017-62

Dear Ms. Lipton:

This email concerns your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which were received in our office on March 7, 2017 from two different email addresses. In your first request, received from requests@muckrock.com, you asked for:

* Any and all reports, research, statistics, recommendations, memorandums, directives, information, or other materials regarding gender-based candidacy or electoral quotas.

In the second request, received from requests@muckrock.com, you requested:

* Any and all comments, complaints, suggestions, and feedback regarding the Public Forum on Women in Politics held by this agency on May 12, 2015.

I sent an email to requests@muckrock.com on March 17, 2017 asking you to provide us a phone number where we could reach you to clarify your requests. I followed up with an email on March 28, 2017 to the other email address associated with your requests, requests@muckrock.com, asking you to contact me to discuss if you would be able to clarify the particulars of your requests in terms of the scope of documents you have requested or by refining the time frame of your requests.

Having received no response to those messages, I emailed you on April 28, 2017 to explain that if the FOIA Service Center did not receive a response within 20 business days we intended to administratively close your requests. On May 2, 2017, you emailed us and asked that I call you at 617-299-1832. I left messages at that number on June 1 and again on July 5, 2017, asking you to call me at 202-694-1546. I have yet, however, to receive your call, even though we received emails on June 1, July 3, August 2, and September 1 from your Muckrock account at requests@muckrock.com asking for updates on the status of your requests.

Please note that pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A), the time period for the Agency to respond to your FOIA requests will be tolled until we receive a response. Without further clarification, the FEC is unable to process your requests. If the FOIA Service Center does not receive a call from you within 20 business days of the date of this email, we intend to administratively close your requests.

If you have any questions, please contact the FOIA Service Center at FOIA@fec.gov, or (202) 694-1650. Thank you for contacting the FEC.

Sincerely,

Steve N. Hajjar

FOIA Requester Service Center

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Beryl Lipton

MuckRock
DEPT MR 34528
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Email: requests@muckrock.com; requests@muckrock.com

Re: FEC Freedom of Information Act Request, Nos. 2017-61, 2017-62

Dear Ms. Lipton:

This email responds to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which were received in our office on March 7, 2017 from two different email addresses. In your first request, received from requests@muckrock.com, you asked for:

* Any and all reports, research, statistics, recommendations, memorandums, directives, information, or other materials regarding gender-based candidacy or electoral quotas.

In the second request, received from requests@muckrock.com, you requested:

* Any and all comments, complaints, suggestions, and feedback regarding the Public Forum on Women in Politics held by this agency on May 12, 2015.

I sent an email to requests@muckrock.com on March 17, 2017 asking you to provide us a phone number where we could reach you to clarify your requests. I followed up with an email on March 28, 2017 to the other email address associated with your requests, requests@muckrock.com, asking you to contact me to discuss if you would be able to clarify the particulars of your requests in terms of the scope of documents you have requested or by refining the time frame of your requests.

Having received no response to those messages, I emailed you on April 28, 2017 to explain that if the FOIA Service Center did not receive a response within 20 business days we intended to administratively close your requests. On May 2, 2017, you emailed us and asked that I call you at 617-299-1832. I left messages at that number on June 1 and again on July 5, 2017, asking you to call me at 202-694-1546. On June 1, July 3, August 2, and again on September 1, 2017, we received messages from your Muckrock account at requests@muckrock.com asking for updates on the status of your requests.

Having received no phone call from you, we notified you by email on September 6, 2017 that if the FOIA Service Center did not receive a call from you within 20 business days we would administratively close your FOIA requests. We have yet to receive any call or further communication from you in response to our September 6, 2017 email. Accordingly, we have administratively closed your FOIA requests 2017-061 and 2017-062.

If you have any questions, please contact the FOIA Service Center at FOIA@fec.gov, or (202) 694-1650. Thank you for contacting the FEC.

Sincerely,

Steve N. Hajjar

FOIA Requester Service Center