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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 partial production late on a Friday evening after the oversight committee put the issue on the agenda, and she said roughly 75% of the requested materials were included in that delivery. "Enough is enough, and it's clear that their strategy is just to waste our time," Schmidt said, describing repeated follow ups that she called stonewalling.
The committee questioned what Schmidt sought and why. Schmidt said the request did not include personnel records or voters' personal data; rather, it sought training materials available through the clerk e‑learning portal, indexes and lists of materials, a site map of the Bureau of Elections website, the bureau's organizational chart, contact information for local clerks, and statutory and regulatory guidance and guidance letters sent to clerks. Schmidt said the request covered materials from roughly 2016 to the present to see how training had changed across administrations.
Several members raised procedural questions. Representative McDonald noted that agencies often assess fees for extensive FOIA productions; Schmidt said the department directed her staff to file a public FOIA even though she represents a coequal legislative committee and that she considered the agency's cost estimate and delay unreasonable. Other members expressed concern about when the legislature should pay for records and whether committee chairs should be required to use FOIA to obtain materials from another branch.
Representative Regas said he would support compelling production, and other members suggested incremental steps. The committee chair proposed drafting a letter requesting the deficient materials be delivered in a defined, timely window — one representative suggested 10 business days as a reasonable timeframe — as a first step before considering subpoenas. Schmidt said she would be willing to accept read‑only login access to the portal if the department would provide it.
Schmidt also said she would provide the committee with a list of what still is outstanding and the items the Department of State withheld. Several members suggested the committee invite the secretary of state or department staff to testify directly if the production does not move forward.
No subpoena was issued at the meeting. Committee members endorsed sending a formal request or letter to the Department of State asking it to deliver the remaining materials promptly and asked Schmidt to supply the committee with a list of withheld items and the partial production she has received.
