Audit: Scott County auditor overpaid election workers in 2020

DAVENPORT — Former Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz overpaid election workers by more than $12,700 in 2020, violating state law, according to a report from State Auditor Rob Sand.

The report detailed an investigation launched in 2021 after the Scott County Board of Supervisors raised concerns about the workers’ pay.

The audit also surveyed 15 other Iowa counties and found election workers had been overpaid in six of them.

For the 2020 primary election, Scott County supervisors set most poll workers’ wage at $10 an hour, with $12 an hour for precinct chairpersons. According to Iowa Code, the county supervisors set the pay for election workers in each county.

But in order to increase workers’ pay to $15 an hour, Moritz’s office inflated the hours that election workers worked and did so without approval from the supervisors. As a result, the payroll system recorded 1,426 more hours than election workers actually worked, according to the audit.

“What happened in Scott County was very problematic,” Sand said in an interview. “To see people getting paid for more time than they worked, just because the auditor felt like it, is totally inappropriate.”

Moritz did not immediately respond to requests for comment. She previously told the Quad-City Times that making the decision without the approval of the county supervisors was a mistake.

She told the auditor’s office she thought increasing the pay rate would prevent precinct officials from quitting, according to the report, and “simply forgot that the pay rate required board approval.”

For the 2020 general election, the Scott County supervisors increased election worker pay to $15 an hour. In one instance, a worker’s hours were increased in the payroll system to reach a $20 an hour wage. The report said a handwritten note by Moritz approved that change, resulting in a $100 overpayment.

Moritz was issued two technical infractions by the Secretary of State’s office for the incident, and she retired in 2021 after tensions with the county supervisors.

The audit found Moritz did not misuse federal funding from the CARES Act that was intended to help counties conduct elections during the pandemic. The increased pay for election workers was funded, in part, by a grant from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life.

Other counties

As part of the report, the auditor’s office also checked election pay in 15 other counties, chosen based on population and geographic location to achieve a diverse group.

The audit found six counties — Adams, Des Moines, Dickinson, Harrison, Pottawattamie and Poweshiek — had paid some election workers an hourly rate or a hazard pay sum that was not approved by county supervisors.

Including Scott, the total overpayment by the counties was $37,353.53 for the 2020 primary and general elections.

Five counties did not provide documentation for pay rates, and eight counties had discrepancies between hours paid or miles reimbursed for multiple workers. None of the counties was found to have misused federal money.

Because of an election-related law passed by the state Legislature in 2021, the secretary of state can impose a fine of up to $10,000 for a technical infraction, like the one issued to Moritz, starting this year.

Recommendations

Sand said the report was aimed at preventing similar overpayment issues by county auditors in the future.

The report recommended the Secretary of State’s Office should temporarily review pay rates being used by county auditor’s offices to make sure they comply with Iowa law.

In its response, the Secretary of State’s Office said it would continue educating county auditors regarding election workers’ pay.

The office said it would introduce new rules and require counties to provide information about pay on documentation certifying the election.

“These new administrative rules will provide county auditors with additional guidance on the steps they need to take to ensure compliance with Iowa Code §49.20 prior to the election,” the Secretary of State’s Office wrote in the report.

Comments: cmccullough@qctimes.com