Prepare for Election Season and a Spike in Public Records Requests

An uptick in public records requests occurs during all phases of the election. Requests increase in presidential election years, during recounts, and when there is controversy with the candidates and results. Agencies should prepare now by putting FOIA management software in place.

What Does NextRequest FOIA Management Software Do?

This digital solution enhances workflow, strengthens transparency, and saves local governments time and money. This improved productivity and communication is essential during election season. When local offices are inundated with FOIA requests, they are required by federal law to fulfill each one, which can affect their workflow for years, hinder their ability to complete their other community tasks, and hamstring their capacity to handle future elections.

How Does NextRequest Improve Operations and Resident Relations?

• Effortlessly receive, track, process, and release records all from one cloud-based solution
• Uses one of the highest-quality redaction tools in the industry, with batch redaction capabilities across hundreds of documents and emails
• Increases transparency by quickly completing requests via exceptional organization and seamless search capabilities
• Increased compliance due to having a centralized, cloud-based system
• Accept payments online, send and track invoices, and calculate staff billable hours automatically
• Coordinate across departments, set roles, and configure request routes with automated workflows
• Customize recurring and ad-hoc reports and leverage visual dashboards to identify trends
• Maintain a clear audit trail so you always know the status of your requests for FOIA records
• Receive automated email reminders and set custom notifications to ensure nothing is missed
• All data is encrypted at rest and in transit, mapped to CJIS and HIPAA Security Rule controls, and has completed the SOC 2 audit
• Easy to use and built explicitly for FOIA requests

What Are the Specific Difficulties of Election Season?

Typical requests are for information related to candidate funding, candidate and agency financials, party affiliation, voter demographics, voter registration lists, voting locations, voting personnel, and other things related to an election and public funding.

Request types do vary, as does requester intent. Some requesters are vexatious. Weaponizing the public records request process by attempting to confuse, bog down, and strain an agency’s resources with outrageous requests in length and depth is not unheard of. However, most requesters are good residents and merely want informative information.

Preparing with NextRequest software for the increase in requests, particularly in light of the 2024 presidential election, builds public trust via enhanced transparency. Plus, it will save your department time, money, and effort, allowing staff to complete all requests while continuing to handle future work.

Local government budgets and their workforce are often limited. And when there’s an influx of public records requests, there’s not an easy way to solve the problem since spending and increasing staff aren’t always feasible options. Take the 2020 election; the number of requests concerning voter fraud was insurmountable. Officials are still handling these requests, with many requesters not knowing what they are looking for and state and local offices not knowing if they have the proper documents. Clerks and other staff members are extremely overwhelmed with the influx of demands.

Why Switch to NextRequest?

Our FOIA management software makes your life easier. You can complete tasks faster because you can find information more quickly. Data is better organized, and the ability to automate tasks minimizes the tedious, laborious work that takes up a large portion of your day. The added transparency provided to residents through this coordinated system increases community satisfaction and enhances the civic experience.