More than a week after releasing hundreds of pages of blacked-out e-mails in response to reporters' public information request for documents relating to the abrupt resignation of the state Elections Bureau director, Secretary of State Mary Herrera relented Monday and released mostly intact versions of the same documents.

News organizations, including The New Mexican, requested the e-mails after elections director A.J. Salazar resigned claiming Herrera was guilty of cronyism and possible violations of the state Governmental Conduct Act and elections laws.

In a cover letter accompanying the latest batch of documents, Deputy Secretary Francisco Trujillo wrote, "Some of the privilege reductions in the first disclosure were inadvertently overbroad ..." Indeed, a handful of copies of un-redacted e-mails obtained by The New Mexican from other sources last week showed the messages concerned matters like routine requests for election forms and innocuous discussions about a bill being considered during the Legislature.

Many of the un-redacted documents released Monday are similarly routine.

But some shed light on some of Salazar's charges. And several pieces of correspondence between Herrera and Salazar show a testiness in their relationship — which came to a head Feb. 26 when Salazar abruptly resigned.

Included in the e-mails is a Feb. 10 message from Deputy Attorney General Melanie Carver with the subject line "Admonition regarding solicitations."

As Salazar talked about in his resignation letter, Carver was concerned about the office's practice of soliciting contributions to sponsor an election school from companies contracted with the office.

Wrote Carver, "Please be aware that solicitations from contractors who have been awarded contracts with the SOS, or who may bid on (a) SOS contract, may create the impression that undue influence or improper associations are tied to such solicitations/donations.

"This is especially important for the Secretary of State office because this office is charged with the responsibility for enforcing the Government Contract Act in the first instance. This office should be meticulously scrupulous in avoiding even the appearance of impropriety," Carver's e-mail says.

Herrera responded to Carver the next day, saying, "If this is not allowed, I will stop it immediately."

She also e-mailed Salazar, saying, "I do not appreciate you going to Melanie and not talking to me about this first. ... I do not believe I asked you to do anything regarding this issue. I have you busy working the Legislative session and on other things." Several more e-mails are exchanged between Herrera and Salazar that day. In one Feb. 12 message, Herrera told Salazar, "I do not appreciate you going over my head."

In another series of messages between the Attorney General's Office and SOS officials, Carver on Feb. 16 and 17 expressed concern about the storage of voting machines. This was touched off by a SOS agreement in which the state would loan the city of Rio Rancho 12 voting machines for its municipal election.

One area of concern for Carver was that nine of the 39 machines owned by the state were being stored by AES, the company that sold them to the state. "I was told that this was not happening and it is disturbing to find out that SOS-owned voting systems are being stored at AES without a contract," Carver wrote. Carver said all voting systems must be in SOS custody; or in the custody of another government entity that has agreed to store them; or stored with a private company that has a contract obtained in accordance to the state procurement code.

In one e-mail, Carver referred to a 2008 federal audit that said the SOS "does not have an accurate tracking system for machines ..."

Trujillo and Herrera have denied that there are security issues pertaining to the storage of the voting machines.

While in the previous batch of documents released, the secretary of state went overboard in blacking out information, in the latest batch the office might have gone too far the other way. Among the messages released are those in which an SOS employee describes a personal medical condition and the medical condition of a family member.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.