The contract between the Maricopa County Recorder and the chair of the Republican party, Mickie Niland

I campaigned for the post of Member-at-Large in the fall of 2021. I wanted all PCs to benefit from access to the voter data provided by Maricopa County under ARS 16-168. The chairman of the Republican party, Mickie Niland, warned me that doing so would violate a contract between her and the county. She would not show me the contract, so I used the Arizona Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request the contract from the county. The county said there was no contract.

On Wednesday afternoon (April 27), the county changed their mind and sent me a copy of the contract, reproduced below.

RepDataScanDownload

Here is the email thread between me and the county.

AZ FOIA 220427Download

The followup questions include:

  1. What are the consequences to the county for lying in response to a FOIA request?
  2. Why is such a contract needed when there is ARS 16-168? Does the Republican party give up rights it has under statute? If so, in return for what consideration?
  3. Why is this contract secret?
  4. Why is there no contract between the county and the Democrat party?
  5. Why did the county change its mind about the existence of this contract?