A federal oversight agency’s review of how New Hampshire is spending $18 million in federal election money finds that the state, for the most part, follows the rules. But the back-and-forth within the audit illuminates a larger and long-running tension between the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office and the federal elections officials.

The audit by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Office of Inspector General, which New Hampshire is one of the last state’s to undergo, is intended to account for how states are spending money distributed through the 2002 Help America Vote Act, or HAVA. State election officials here have long argued the commission behind the audit lacks the authority to govern how states conduct their elections or how they spend the money distributed through HAVA. | More…

| NHPR