As part of ongoing project to document every state’s public records law, MuckRock looked at the policies governing how long an agency has to respond to a records request. While most states have clear deadlines, 10 are worryingly vague. Five don’t have any timeline at all.

With agencies increasingly using an array of exemptions to deny access to information, we want to help requesters fight back. We’re launching a project to track every public records exemption in all 50 states - and provide the information needed to successfully overcome times when information is improperly denied.