The audit is looking at how South Dakota had used hundreds of thousands of dollars received through the federal Help America Vote Act program established after the 2000 presidential election. Documents from the past needed for the audit aren’t available in some instances and some past spending is under question whether it was allowable, according to Krebs. Kristin Gabriel now is the HAVA coordinator on Krebs’ staff. Gabriel told state Board of Elections members during their meeting Thursday that HAVA is undergoing an audit that reaches back 13 years to the initial funding period. “We did our best and provided them what we had and what we could find,” Gabriel said.
She said it is a regularly scheduled audit but the auditors are working on only half of a dozen states per year.
That’s made documentation difficult to find sometimes. Gabriel said the office now is keeping everything related to the HAVA grant and filing it by year and purpose.
The auditors will report their findings to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission that oversees the HAVA program. Gabriel said the secretary of state staff would review those findings and respond to the EAC as well. Then the EAC would issue its final audit report.
Full Article: State elections office struggling to find records for federal audit | Local News Stories | capjournal.com.