"As an independent elected official, it is the Secretary of State's responsibility to ensure his office is in compliance with state policy and laws," Livers said.

The audit found other issues within the office, including relationships between three office employees related through birth or marriage. Two of the employees were in a supervisor-supervisee relationship, according to the audit. That existed a little more than a month, when the office changed the supervisor after auditors raised questions.

The office did not concur with the audit's recommendation to enhance internal controls to identity relationships and ensure proper segregation of duties are implemented.

The office said it already had "key controls in place to ensure relationships within the office are identified and proper segregation of duties/supervision exist."

Additionally, the audit found issues with how the office recorded $3 million in an 2018 Help America Vote Act elections security grant. The audit found the office incorrectly recorded a revenue estimate in its enterprise fiscal fund of $3 million in the 2018 fiscal year. Since it is federal funding, however, the estimate should have been recorded in a federal special revenue fund.

The office received and deposited the federal funds during the 2018 fiscal year, but did not spend them. State accounting policy requires that to be recorded as unearned revenue, but it was not done that way by the Secretary of State's office. The office said it concurred with the auditor's finding in this area and said it would review polices to correct the error in the future and correct the budget misstatement.

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