A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was sent to the Kalamazoo County Election Division on February 5, 2025. The request was made by us at the Kalamazoo Times, a media organization dedicated to providing comprehensive and accurate news coverage on local governmental affairs.
In our quest for transparency and accountability in public institutions, we sought detailed information about all candidates running in the upcoming spring election. The specifics requested included the first, middle, and last names of the candidates; the office they are vying for; jurisdiction of the office; party affiliation of each candidate; as well as their contact information including address, phone number, and email address.
As a media organization, we believe that access to public records is essential for us to fulfill our professional responsibilities. We underscored this in our request while also seeking a fee waiver due to our role as a media professional involved in gathering and reporting news to the public.
We remain committed to providing our readers with transparent and accountable reporting on local government affairs. As such, we will continue to use legal avenues such as FOIA requests to gather necessary information.
We await a response from the Kalamazoo County Election Division regarding this request and will update our readers accordingly once we receive it.