Since 2003, the feds have doled out nearly $3 billion to states to clean up their rickety, chad-hanging electoral systems. Turns out that 49 states – as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa — have managed to file detailed reports accounting for their election reform funds. But one state can’t seem to explain how it spent the money: New Hampshire.
The feds have given the state $16.5 million under the Help American Vote Act – yet officials in the state have refused to account for the cash, according to a recent report by the Election Assistance Commission, the agency charged with overseeing reform. The EAC repeatedly requested reports from New Hampshire about the fate of the money, only to find out that the state does “not believe they were legally obligated to file annual reports.” Live free or die, indeed.