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Chair of House Election Integrity committee seeks withheld clerk training materials, says Department of State stonewalled requests
Summary
Chair Schmidt told the House Oversight Committee the secretary of state's office delayed or withheld access to e-learning training materials for local clerks, demanding a FOIA and quoting 140 hours and nearly $9,000 to produce records; Schmidt asked the oversight committee to compel production or issue a subpoena.
Representative Schmidt, chair of the House Committee on Election Integrity, told the House Committee on Oversight on March 11 that the Department of State delayed and partially withheld access to clerk training materials requested by the election committee.
Schmidt said her office first sought access to the Bureau of Elections e‑learning portal on Nov. 7, 2024, to review training and instruction given to local clerks and deputies. "On Nov. 21, 2024, the Department of State responded to our FOIA request by stating that they could not provide us with access to the Clerk e‑learning material because they did not understand our request," Schmidt said. She said a later Department estimate dated Jan. 7, 2025, put the production burden at about 140 man‑hours and nearly $9,000.
Schmidt told committee members she ultimately received a…
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