Audit faults Kiffmeyer’s voting-law procedures

07/25/2005

Mike Kaszuba,
Star Tribune
July 26, 2005

A year after Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer faced election-season questions over how she was implementing a new federal law intended to make voting simpler, a state audit has faulted her office for procedural discrepancies regarding the law.

But the office of the legislative auditor’s financial audit did not address the larger issue regarding the new federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA)—whether the secretary of state’s office used the new law and the accompanying money to help increase voter turnout.

Minnesota led the nation in voter turnout last November, with 77 percent of eligible voters going to the polls, the highest level since 1960. Nationwide, an estimated 59.6 percent of eligible Americans voted in the presidential race. “We really have done very well,” said Kiffmeyer, who complained that the audit’s mostly procedural findings were presented in “an overly harsh” manner.

The legislative auditor’s review of Kiffmeyer’s implementation of HAVA focused on the $5.7 million in federal money her office spent. The audit, which was released July 7, stated among other things that Kiffmeyer’s office charged “an unreasonable amount” of payroll costs—which totaled roughly $312,000—toward developing a state plan to implement the new law.

“Employees continued to charge time worked to developing the state plan, long after it had been issued,” the audit stated.

The audit also questioned roughly $104,000 in advertising costs, much of it for “Get-Out-the-Vote” commercials, that were labeled as costs for developing a state plan to implement the law.

In a letter responding to the audit, Kiffmeyer said that some of the difficulties arose because last year was the first election held since HAVA was adopted in 2002, and that it was the first time her office had received federal funds. “This has been a learning experience,” she wrote.

While Kiffmeyer conceded that there were some discrepancies in how the money was accounted for, she said the audit found no violations of federal law. HAVA was passed by Congress following the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Claudia Gudvangen, the state’s deputy legislative auditor, said the audit was financial and did not address voter registration policy questions under HAVA—an issue that emerged during the 2004 presidential election when Kiffmeyer’s critics charged that she was interpreting the law too strictly in an attempt to thwart voter registration.

The audit also stated that the secretary of state’s office did not draw down “in a timely manner” a $202,000 federal grant to improve access and participation by physically disabled voters. As of three months ago, the audit said, Kiffmeyer’s office had not asked for any federal reimbursements even though it had given out $170,000 in grants.

Kiffmeyer, however, said her office allocated the grants “to maximize benefits to the public” and that “following the auditor’s recommendation would have resulted in less money being available to local governments and for polling place improvements.”