The Arizona Court of Appeals agreed Monday with a lower court’s decision to dismiss a case Santa Cruz County brought against a nonprofit which asked for public records.
In 2022, a nonprofit called AUDIT-USA requested election records from the county.
The county initially said they’d hand them over, but then sued the nonprofit instead.
Representatives for Santa Cruz County told the Arizona Court of Appeals Division 2 in a hearing last week that they had no intention of obstructing public records requests, but needed clarity from the court on whether they could legally deny it.
A panel of Arizona judges unanimously ruled that the county hasn’t brought a legitimate legal issue because AUDIT-USA has no power to require the county to do anything and never filed a lawsuit against the county, or threatened to.
The judges also noted in their ruling that the county’s preemptive lawsuit arguably violates the state’s public records laws. However, the panel didn’t make a declaration on whether the county overstepped in that regard.
“Such a burden could frustrate the purpose for which our public records laws were enacted: to promote transparency in government,” the ruling stated.
The appeals court also agreed with the Pima County Superior Court to award AUDIT-USA only $20,000 in attorney's fees, although they’d asked for more to cover the legal costs of the case.
The Court of Appeals determined that the county was legitimately concerned about the legality of handing over cast vote records — which the nonprofit requested among other things. Cast vote records show how voters voted (anonymously) in the form of a spreadsheet.
“The County’s concerns were justified, particularly in light of subsequent litigation in other counties,” the court ruled.
