Democracy depends on open government. This is the basis of the NH Right to Know Law and the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Over the past year or so I have been meeting relatively little success in my attempts to obtain public records from the NH Secretary of State. Most of my requests are met with "We have no documentation responsive to this request". This indicates an alarming lack of policy and process documentation in the office of the Secretary of State, precluding any meaningful oversight and auditability of the state and national security-critical functions this office fulfills.

For example, when I requested the names of all people responsible for the central tabulation of the 2009 Presidential election, I was told they have no documentation responsive to my request. How would you feel if you asked your bank for the names of the people handling your money, ie, their employees, and were told the bank has no records of those names? Are our votes worth less than our dollars?

A recent audit of the Department of State reached the same conclusions.

The taxpayers of NH deserve better than this. The voters of NH deserve better than this. And with NH holding its position of first in the nation primary, the nation deserves better than this.

All of my public records requests and state responses can be reviewed here.

The current request is found here.