California Assemblymember Dave Cox, who represents the 5th Assembly District

Citing "recent news articles detail[ing] disturbing and questionable use of these funds, including the hiring of a partisan political consultant whose apparent job was to boost voter turnout in at least one Democratic Assembly district," California Assemblymember Dave Cox has sent a letter asking for an audit of the "$84,469,000 to implement the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for fiscal year 2003-04" requested by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

You can read the letter Mr. Cox sent to Assemblymember Wilma Chan, chair of California's Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC), last Friday, August 20th, requesting this audit, by clicking here.

Assemblymember Cox also sent a similar letter the same day to Senator Wes Chesbro, Chairman, Joint Legislative Budget Committee , "requesting a special hearing of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee during the week of September 6th to examine forthcoming HAVA requests, and determine what additional actions may be necessary."

In the letter to Senator Chesbro, Assemblymember Cox suggests that "Until such a hearing on any forthcoming request is held, the Department of Finance should withhold any and all funds requested to implement HAVA for the 04/05 budget year."

You can read Assemblymember Cox's letter to the Chairman of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee by clicking here.

All California Assemblymembers and Senators are entitled to request audits of state programs and agencies. Once approved by the JLAC, audits are carried out by the Bureau of State Audits. Twenty-five of these audits have been completed so far in 2004, and 13 more discretionary audits are still pending, as of August 2nd.

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee is scheduled to meet at 8:00 am tomorrow, Thursday, August 26th, to consider Assemblymember Cox' request for an audit of the $84 million in HAVA funds.