Butler County on Friday filed a lawsuit seeking to block the release of certain voting records under the Right to Know Law.

The lawsuit asks Butler County Common Pleas Court to overrule a determination by the Office of Open Records which required the county to release “all affirmation of elector forms” signed by voters during the November 2020 general election. Such release, the office stated, would be governed by the Election Code, but still would have to be provided in response to a right-to-know request.

Butler County argues that while the affirmation forms are a public record, the procedure to obtain the forms is not under the Right to Know Law, instead through one of two state laws governing access to elections records. Because the request was made under the Right to Know Law and the two other laws create separate procedures for access to the records, the county claims, it should not have to provide the records in response to the right-to-know request.

Under the Election Code and the Voter Registration Act, the two laws Butler County cites as the proper procedure for obtaining those documents, records are open to “public inspection only,” the county claims. But under the Right to Know Law, the county would be obligated to provide an electronic or paper copy of those records if sought by the requester.

The Right to Know Law contains a provision that, if the law conflicts “with any other federal or state law,” the Right to Know Law does not apply.

In its final determination, the Office of Open Records — a state agency which handles disputes under the Right to Know Law — found there are conflicts between the open-records statute and the Election Code, but nevertheless ruled Butler County must provide the affirmations “in accordance with the access provisions of the Election Code.”

Voter affirmation forms, which were sought by Matthew Cornetti, a Clinton Township resident who has repeatedly spoken at county Board of Commissioners meetings alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election, are required under state law when a voters has changed their address but has failed to notify the county Bureau of Elections, or when the poll book requires the voter sign an affirmation.