In my article, I state "Data believed to be saved within the silver laptop" ... and I go on to discuss emails of Misty Hampton and Jil Ridlehoover.

Why only emails? Why not other electronic records, such as instant messages, social media posts, or word processor documents and so on?

Well, for simplicity; out of convention; and because, for hard news, we're mostly accustomed to hearing of email troves being published, not so much instant messages and the like--even though those can be just as important or more important than electronic mails. In short, I'm usually using emails as shorthand for all the public data on the device, more or less.

Georgia law makes clear that records to be retained include all of the above. See for instance O.C.G.A. 50-18-99 (c): "All records created or received in the performance of a public duty or paid for by public funds by a governing body are deemed to be public property and shall constitute a record of public acts."

Federal law similarly makes clear, if an election record involves at least one federal contest, then that record--be it an email, a text-message, an instant messaging chat log, an Excel spreadsheet, or what have you--might someday end up in the hands of a receiving federal agency, such as the Department of Justice or the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), so the federal definition of record applies in that regard.

See for instance 44 U.S.C. 3301, which defines records as "all recorded information, regardless of form or characteristics, made or received by a Federal agency under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business" ... NARA glosses that as follows: "For practical purposes, Federal records are recorded information regardless of format, created or received in the process of conducting Government activities" and so on.

This webpage created by Douglas Lucas on Wednesday, 16 August 2023 as a footnote to my August xx, 2023 article at Venue entitled lorem ipsum.