(1) Applicable law. Requests for public records will be processed in accordance with these rules and applicable provisions of the Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW. Guidance concerning the application of these rules may be found in the advisory model rules adopted by the attorney general under chapter 44-14 WAC.

(2) Prioritizing of requests. Public records requests generally will be processed in the order in which they are received by the records office and within the staffing limitations of the office. However, the records office may expedite requests for a single record or for only a few records, if such records are easily identifiable and can be readily retrieved. The records office may ask, but not require, a requestor to prioritize the records the requestor is seeking.

(3) Clarification of requests. The public records officer may request clarification of a records request in accordance with applicable provisions of the Public Records Act. The requestor must respond to the request for clarification within fifteen business days of the request for clarification.

(4) Providing records by installment. If a requestor submits multiple records requests, or if a request seeks a large number of records or many different types of records, the public records officer may provide access to the records in installments in accordance with applicable provisions of the Public Records Act.

(5) Denial of bot requests. The public records officer may deny a bot request as defined by, and under the circumstances set forth in, RCW 42.56.080(3) if the records officer reasonably believes the request was automatically generated by a computer program or script.