From The Mountain Mail (Salida):  Chaffee County filed a reply brief with the Colorado Supreme Court Tuesday asking the court to dismiss election transparency advocate Marilyn Marks’ request that the county pay for her attorney fees in a case stemming from two open record requests Marks made in 2011.

The brief dismisses statutory claims made in an opening brief Marks filed earlier this month regarding the case.

Without clear statutory direction, the county argues the court should adhere to the American Rule—a generalized rule that states each individual party is responsible for attorney fees unless a specific law says otherwise.

The brief concludes, “Marks’ arguments fail to overcome the legislative history and the standard for an exemption to the American rule.”

Marks filed several records requests during the 2011 general election. After she asked Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder Joyce Reno if she could view some voted ballots from the 2010 election, the county issued a reply within the legally required time period, telling Marks that her request was too broad, according to court documents.

Marks then filed a narrower request asking to view and copy a single ballot, but Reno was uncertain if the county could disclose the requested information.

Reno then filed a Colorado Open Records Act action with the district court asking it to prevent the disclosure of the ballots because she believed in “good faith” that the disclosure was prohibited under the law, according to court documents.

Both parties agreed to stay the proceedings pending the outcome of state legislation that could have affected the case. Following passage of the legislation, Reno granted Marks’ request to view a single ballot, at which point Marks raised the issue of who should pay her attorney fees.

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