The state Attorney General's Office is looking into the question of whether Secretary of State Mary Herrera violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act by blacking out e-mails.

"Our guys are looking at this, is about all I am free to say," said Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for Attorney General Gary King, on Tuesday.

Sisneros was asked by a reporter whether Herrera's office violated the act by redacting e-mails requested by reporters. He replied that the attorney general only issues opinions when asked to do so by state legislators or other state officials.

But Sisneros later added, "While it does require a state official to request an opinion, a suspected violation of state law is always given serious consideration no matter how the information comes to us."

As reported this week, at least three of the e-mails — original, unredacted copies obtained this week by The New Mexican — turned out to concern routine matters. One was a request from the Santa Fe County Bureau of Elections for certain voter registrations, two others from Think New Mexico, which were requesting Herrera support a certain bill in the Legislature and supplying the Secretary of State's Office with a copy of the bill.

Those e-mails were just a fraction of the 400 pages of Secretary of State's Office e-mails given to reporters this week by Herrera's office. A majority of the e-mails were significantly redacted, their content obscured by black magic marker.

Media requests for the e-mails were spurred by questions surrounding former state election chief A.J. Salazar's resignation. In his resignation, Salazar had accused Herrera of violating ethics and elections laws. King has said his office is looking at those allegations.

A guide to the Inspections of Public Records Act provides very few exceptions to allow redacting of public records before copies are released. These include matters of opinion in an employee's personnel file; some information in criminal investigations; cases in which someone who has filed a complaint with a licensing board has "a justifiable fear of retaliation should his or her identify be disclosed"; and home addresses of employees.

Deputy Secretary Francisco Gonzales said last week that the e-mails were redacted on the advice of state Risk Management lawyers.

Sisneros said Tuesday that the attorney also gave advice to the Secretary of State's Office regarding what kinds of information can be redacted pursuant to the public records act. Attorney/client privilege prohibits him from disclosing the specific nature of the attorneys' advice, he said.

But in an e-mail Tuesday, Sisneros said his office "did NOT physically redact any of the documents."