The House unanimously approved today a bill that would require government agencies in New Mexico to accept requests for public records via e-mail and fax.
House Bill 598, sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was approved on a vote of 64-0. It now moves to the Senate for consideration.
“Government actors should not be able to rely on artificial barriers to avoid making public records available to the public,” Cervantes said following today’s vote. “With this legislation, no government actor can hide behind an argument that a records request must be printed and mailed or hand-delivered to constitute a valid request. This bill represents yet another effort by the Legislature to assure the public the greatest possible opportunity to participate in their government.”
Cervantes’ bill comes in response to New Mexico State University’s assertion in 2007 that records requests I filed weren’t valid because they were sent via e-mail. The attorney general considered the issue and said that, though his office and the vast majority of state agencies treat e-mail requests as valid, state law doesn’t explicitly require that they be treated as valid.
Currently, the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act requires response to “oral” and “written” requests for public records, but there’s apparently no clear definition of what constitutes writing. Denying a request because it was sent electronically, and forcing someone to instead deliver the request in person or mail it, is one method some government agencies, including NMSU, have used to make it more difficult to access public records.
Cervantes’ bill would clarify that writing includes e-mail, fax and other electronic formats.