Since Republican Dave Boliek won last year’s election for state auditor, the position has been getting more powerful. He’s now responsible for appointing and overseeing the State Board of Elections, and lawmakers want to put him in charge of a sweeping government efficiency review.
He’s also been auditing the Division of Motor Vehicles and hurricane recovery spending. Boliek spoke with Colin Campbell on the WUNC Politics Podcast about that work and other action in his first five months in office.
This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Given that we've shifted now from a Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections to a Republican majority, what would you say to someone who's still skeptical that elections istration is able to be done fairly here, without giving an advantage to one political party or the other?
“I would say that proof's going to be in how the elections are istered. I think the important thing is to look at it in of election integrity, and always through the lens of giving the public confidence in the way elections are run. And if that is the criteria, then we will succeed.”
During the campaign, you'd pledged to audit the State Board of Elections. Is that still the plan, and does it change how that's conducted, given this is now part of your agency versus a completely separate entity?
“I do think that all state agencies need to have audits from the state auditor at some point, and so we're certainly going to continue to look at that and determine when and if that is an appropriate thing for the state auditor's office to do.”
One of the other big campaign issues last year was to audit the DMV, given the long wait times and myriad of problems there. Where does that audit project stand right now?
“We have been deep into that audit project since almost Day One. It is – and I believe the governor has also echoed this – it is a bigger mess than even he thought, and that I thought, and that it is, in fact, a mess.
“It is something that we are spending a tremendous amount of time on to make sure that we have the data correct and that we evaluate the DMV from top to bottom, so that as we issue recommendations, those recommendations are based on facts, not based on conjecture. We're close to being able to release our first report.”
An audit came out recently looking into Hurricane Helene relief and a very expensive shower and laundry facility. What did your auditors find there that seem to be particularly concerning?
“When you're responding to a disaster like Helene, a warm shower and a place to wash your clothes and a place of respite is responsive to the citizens in that area, no question about it. But spending $145,000 a day at one location that served, at its height, somewhere around 100 people a day is expensive.
“We as a state need to take into the cost of these things, and can we do it more efficiently? And can we direct state tax dollars more efficiently and get more bang for the buck? Quite frankly, I think $220 a laundry load is too much.”
What do you need from lawmakers, whether it's extra positions or extra funding, to do the kind of work that you're trying to do?
“We are going to need some full-time staff. If you look at the auditor's office and the size of the office, at one time the office was north of 200 individuals that were full time. We now have 159 individuals. At that time, the state budget was almost half what it is today.”
