A federal audit of the V.I. Elections System scheduled to begin last week is being delayed because of the absence of V.I. Elections Supervisor John Abramson Jr. Curtis Crider, the inspector general for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, said Thursday that two factors contributed to the delay. “One, we wanted to make sure it was after the election was over,” Crider said.
The territory’s two Boards of Election brought an administrative close to the 2012 election cycle last week by certifying election results on Nov. 21. The Election Assistance Commission had planned on beginning its audit “on or around” Nov. 19, according to an Oct. 22 letter from Crider.
The second consideration was an emailed request from the V.I. Elections System to delay the start of the audit because of Abramson being off-island, Crider said.
“We were OK with that,” he said.
The audit now is scheduled to begin Dec. 11, Crider said.
Crider said neither the delay nor the growing number of complaints within the territory about the conduct of the 2012 election would change the scope of the Election Assistance Commission’s audit. The probe will focus exclusively on how the Elections System spent federal funds appropriated to the V.I. government under the Help America Vote Act and whether the territory complied with other components of that law, such as replacing lever voting machines; establishing an election fund; and maintaining elections expenditures at a level not less than what was expended in fiscal year 2000, according to Crider’s letter.
Full Article: Federal audit of V.I. Elections System delayed by John Abramson’s absence – News – Virgin Islands Daily News.