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Thursday, March 05, 2009

N. M. House approves bill to okay requests via e-mail

Should it really matter whether an FOI request is filed via e-mail or paper? The New Mexico House doesn't think so, the New Mexico Independent reported.

The New Mexico House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would make an e-mail the legal equivalent of a paper request for public documents.

The legislation is needed because some state agencies in the past have not accepted e-mails as a legally acceptable way to request documents.

A similar bill that would accomplish much the same thing, and shorten the period a public agency has to respond to a request for information, has been delayed. That bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, was larded with exemptions to the state’s public records act.

More here.

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