SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling stating that certain election materials can not be obtained via government records requests.
In an opinion published Thursday, the court sided with a district court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit filed against Utah, Juab, and Millard Counties, as well as figures such as Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson.
The case began in December 2021 when two Utahns submitted Government Records Access and Management Act requests to the three counties asking for "Cast Vote Records," "Project Backup Databases," "Ballot Images," and "Tabulator Tapes." In their GRAMA requests, they stated their intentions to share the documents publicly to the media, local officials and "several advocacy organizations."
The counties denied the requests, either directly, or by simply not responding, which is considered a denial under GRAMA. The ones that issued a denial stated the requested records were either sealed or not public.
After the counties didn't respond to subsequent appeals, the two Utahns filed a joint complaint, seeking a review of the denials and a preliminary injunction to "prevent destruction of the documents during the pendency of litigation." The crux of their argument was that since Utah law did not restricts the documents by name, they were presumed to be public and therefore subject to GRAMA requests.
The Lieutenant Governor's office then filed a motion to intervene citing the Lieutenant Governor's role as the "chief election officer of the State of Utah."
The office then filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that Utah's Election Code governs all "Election Materials," excluding them from accessibility via GRAMA, which the district court granted, prompting the appeal.
In the ruling, Judge Ryan Tenney outlined how ballots are processed in accordance with the Election Code. Ballots are tallied by election judges, a process that is open to the public at counting centers and may be observed by a voter who registers as a "watcher." Votes are then canvassed, where they've made official at county and state levels. This process is also held in public.
As soon as the results are canvassed, ballots are sealed by poll workers and locked away, with no one allowed to examine them outside of specific circumstances. Ballots are then retained for 22 months after the election. Once that time has passed, election officers are directed to destroy them without opening or examining them.
Judge Tenney also explained how these limitations apply to other election items, such as pollbooks, absentee voter registrations, voting certificates, and tally sheets.
When commenting on the claim that documents not explicitly stated to be exempted from GRAMA were public, he notes how the laws as written allow for flexibility in order to avoid potential loopholes.
"GRAMA applies statewide, and yet different entities might have different naming conventions for otherwise similar documents,” Judge Tenney writes. "If GRAMA were narrowed in such a fashion, an entity could avoid release of records simply by renaming an otherwise covered document."
