• Santa Cruz County sought clarity on releasing election and voting tally data • County denied request for ballot images and sued requester • Judges question impact on transparency, public access to records

A case poised to determine whether a county can sue a public records requester to obtain court-ordered clarity is pending at the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Under public records law, when someone requests a public record and is denied access, they have the authority to challenge the decision in court. If successful, they are entitled to recoup their legal costs.

But, when Santa Cruz County faced some uncertainty over whether to release an elections-related record, it decided to sue the organization requesting the record to get a final word from the court.

The Court of Appeals is n

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