C. Does the existence of information in electronic format affect its openness?

For the most part, experience to date seems to indicate no unusual problems with obtaining or utilizing information in electronic format. It is treated like other information. One notable exception is the June 2011 production of 22,000 pages of e-mails pursuant to media requests—following the 2008 selection of former governor Sarah Palin as Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate—for virtually all of the e-mails to or from Palin during her tenure as governor.  In the end, these e-mails were produced in hard copy, in sets of six banker boxes of documents.  It is likely that this was a unique situation, resulting from a number of factors that included:  1) the unprecedented volume of documents sought, 2) the number of requestors, 3) the number of employees/computers whose records were to be searched and analyzed to comply with the requests, 4) the state’s need to be able to review the documents to remove or redact privileged matters, and 5) the state’s assertion of practical infeasibility with respect to carrying out these responsibilities with the document management software it used at the time. Software now in use by the state should permit the state obtain, review, redact as necessary, and produce electronic documents in their native format.