FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

News from Progress Michigan

October 27, 2018

Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org

Secretary of State Fails to Respond to Progress Michigan FOIA Request on Voter Address Error

Failure to respond to FOIA in a timely manner raises more questions

LANSING — Progress Michigan is calling out Secretary of State Ruth Johnson for her office’s failure to respond to a FOIA request sent last week by the government watchdog group. The FOIA is seeking to shine a light on problems with voter addresses not matching driver’s license addresses possibly affected tens of thousands of voters.

“This matter is too important to be swept under the rug by the Secretary of State. Voters deserve to know they will be able to vote on their assigned precinct and the people of Michigan deserve to know what happened and why this mistake was made,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “This story only came to light because we received a tip and took it to the public, otherwise, I fear the Secretary of State would have left us all in the dark and covered up this error.”

Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act requires departments to respond to an initial FOIA request within five business days. The department may ask for an extension, however, the Secretary of State has not responded to Progress Michigan since the original request was sent last week.

“The office of Secretary of State should have responded immediately to this request because it may affect the election happening in less than two weeks,” Scott continued. “Failure to respond to this request and ensure voters the mistake has been fixed is a failure of Ruth Johnson to do the basic duties of her office.”

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