A hearing officer said he will take under advisement a motion to dismiss in Phil Lyman’s GRAMA appeal seeking ERIC reports that the lieutenant governor’s office received in 2023 and 2024 and will issue a written decision within seven business days.

Michael Voorweiler, the designee of the director of the Government Records Office, opened the proceeding and said the parties’ arguments would determine whether the records are governed by state GRAMA procedures or by the federal National Voter Registration Act, known as the NVRA. Voorweiler told the parties he would issue a written order within seven business days and that either party may appeal to district court within 30 calendar days.

“Shouldn't the public be able to see what information an out of state third party is providing to the LG's office to manipulate the voter rolls?” petitioner Phil Lyman said during his allotted time, arguing the public has a right to see ERIC-supplied reports used to maintain Utah’s voter rolls.

Lyman and his counsel told the hearing officer they sought copies of ERIC reports produced to the lieutenant governor’s office in 2023 and 2024 and requested redaction logs to support any withheld information. They said the office has produced a death-record report but has denied or delayed other responsive records. Counsel described using the GRAMA process to seek records to avoid immediate federal litigation and to obtain transparency without additional expense.

Respondent counsel for the lieutenant governor’s office argued that questions about compliance with the NVRA and several federal privacy statutes are not properly resolved by the state records tribunal. “It is not appropriate for this tribunal, the government records office, to interpret and imply the federal statute,” counsel said, arguing that the NVRA provides a separate, federal remedy and that overlapping federal and state statutes constrain this office’s authority to order disclosure.

Respondent pointed to GRAMA provisions cited at the hearing (noted in the record as 63G-2-201(3) and 63G-2-107) and to 52 U.S.C. 20510 (the NVRA private right of action provision) and argued those statutes and federal privacy provisions control access to elements of the requested data. Petitioner’s counsel countered that GRAMA explicitly allows the records office to look to more specific statutes when determining disclosure and argued the lieutenant governor’s office had applied NVRA selectively, producing some material while withholding or redacting other items.

Parties also debated whether federal privacy laws and related statutes require withholding whole reports or only redaction of specific personally identifiable fields (examples cited in the hearing included Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers). Counsel for the petitioner cited federal case law in the Tenth Circuit to support producing reports with narrowly tailored redactions rather than withholding entire reports.

The parties and the hearing officer discussed a prior administrative opinion by the Chief Administrative Officer dated Dec. 16, 2024, that stated, in part, that because the petitioner had invoked the NVRA, GRAMA did not apply and NVRA procedures would govern response timing. The parties disagreed about whether that opinion, case law, or the pending federal litigation resolved the current GRAMA appeal.

Voorweiler told the parties the legal issues were sufficiently complex that he would consult counsel and take the motion under advisement. He said a written decision would follow within seven business days and that the parties would have 30 calendar days to appeal to district court. With those remarks, the hearing was adjourned.

The hearing record identifies the matter as GRAMA request number 2025042 (Phil Lyman v. Office of Lieutenant Governor) and focuses on ERIC reports supplied to the lieutenant governor’s office in 2023–24, the interplay between GRAMA and NVRA, and the proper scope of redaction for personally identifiable information. No final ruling was issued at the hearing; the motion to dismiss was taken under advisement.