After being postponed from February 3, 2005, to February 22, 2005, the Joint Legislative Committee of the California Legislature (JLAC) held an "Informational Hearing on HAVA," to look into allegations that California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley had misused funds provided to the State of California under provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

This February 22, 2005, hearing was held, in part, because, in an August 20, 2004, letter to the then-Chair of the Joint Legislative Committee, Wilma Chan, California Republican Assemblymember Dave Cox had asked for such a hearing.

Also on August 20, 2004, this reporter contacted the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and asked if they were planning any investigations into the possible misuse of the HAVA funds that they had provided to California for Secretary of State Shelley to use to help Californians vote.

In an article entitled "Previously uninterested Election Assistance Commission expresses interest in investigating Shelleygate," published on the California Politics Today web site on September 23, 2004, Brian Whitener, spokesperson at the time for the EAC, responded as follows:

"Asked about the reports in the San Jose Mercury that almost half-a-million dollars in federal HAVA funds were being misappropriated by the state's chief elections officer, Mr. Whitener indicated that EAC couldn't comment on news reports.

"Asked if EAC had a mechanism in place for the on-going auditing of the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds it was allocating under the HAVA to California and other states, Mr. Whitener indicated that it did not.

"Mr. Whitener suggested that inquiries regarding the misappropriation of HAVA funds in this case be directed to "California," which he indicated meant the Secretary of State of California, the very person whose use of these funds was at issue."

On August 26, 2004, the day after the CPT article reporting on Assemblymember Cox's request appeared, California State Senator Richard Alarcon, now a candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles in the March 8, 2005, primary election, spoke with CPT about Assemblymember Cox's request, as well as about two other pending requests for state audits under the auspices of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Also on August 26, 2005, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted to approve Assemblymember Cox's request for an investigation of Mr. Shelley's handling of HAVA money provided to the State of California by the United States Government.

And on that same day, CPT conducted additional interviews with Assemblymember Cox and with Rachel Richman, chief of staff to Assemblymember Chan. They both agreed that the audit requested by Mr. Cox and approved that day by the JLAC would cost the State of California and its taxpayers around $100,000.

Reference is made in the CPT article of September 23, 2004, to a later turn-around on the part of the EAC. In an article entitled "U.S. election agency to examine Shelley use of federal funds" that appeared on the SFgate.com site a day earlier, then-EAC Chair DeForest B. Soaries contradicts what the EAC spokesperson had told CPT a month earlier, saying:

"'What we're doing is attempting to learn all the facts we can so that we can begin taking formal steps based on the facts,' Soaries told The Associated Press. 'We have the option to do a special audit under (the Help America Vote Act). We have not decided to do a special audit. But we reserve the right to do a special audit.'"

On December 16, 2004, California's Bureau of State Audits issued the report ordered in August, 2004, by the JLAC. The report was called 2004-139: Office of the Secretary of State: Clear and Appropriate Direction is Lacking in Its Implementation of the Federal Help America Vote Act.

The same day, Assemblymember Cox issued a press release headlined "Cox Calls Audit of Secretary Of State `Damning`--GOP Legislator Requests Legislative Hearings Into Kevin Shelley`s Use of Federal HAVA Money."

To read the California Bureau of State Audits' Audit Highlights, based on the complete report linked to above, click here.

To access the intermediately-sized Office of the Secretary of State Hearing Presentation, also based on the complete report linked to above, issued by the California Bureau of State Audits on January 10, 2005, click here.

On January 27, 2005, the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the federal agency that had originally provided the HAVA money in question to the State of California, voted unanimously to conduct its own audit of the money that Kevin Shelley, on behalf of the State of California, had received from it.

Kevin Shelley resigned the office of Secretary of State of California on February 5, 2005.

On February 22, 2005, John Mott-Smith, Chief, Elections Division, California Office of the Secretary of State, appeared in Room 4202 of the State Capital Building in Sacramento before the members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to present Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's "60-Day Report response" to that committee.

Three days later, on February 25, 2005, Mr. Mott-Smith appeared as a guest on California Politics Today to talk about his presentation to JLAC.

You can hear what he had to say by clicking here.