Audit Report on the New York City Board of Elections’ Inventory Practices for Office Equipment and Voting Machines

Special Report

Executive Summary

The New York City Board of Elections (BOE) is made up of ten Commissioners, two from each borough, who are appointed by the City Council for four year terms.  It has its main administrative office in Manhattan and a borough office in each of the five boroughs.   In addition, it maintains five separate storage facilities for voting machines, one in each borough.  During Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015, the BOE spent approximately $640,000 for electronic office equipment, such as computers, monitors, tablets, printers, and televisions.   Electronic voting equipment, such as voting machines (DS200 scanners and the AutoMARK ballot marking device), computers and monitors for the Central Scanning and Tabulation System, Election Night Results laptops, Microsoft Surface tablets, and printers are purchased separately, but no new purchases were made of this type of electronic equipment during the audit scope period.

Inventory records for electronic equipment purchased for general office use are maintained by the BOE’s Management Information System (MIS) on 11 separate Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, one for each BOE location.   Inventory records for electronic voting equipment are maintained on S-Elect inventory management (S-Elect), an electronic inventory management system that records and tracks electronic equipment used for elections.   Among other things, in connection with S-Elect, when voting equipment is purchased it receives a label with a barcode that is used for tracking the location of the item.  The label identifies the item as the property of the City of New York and includes the agency control number.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

Our audit found that the BOE did not maintain adequate controls over its inventory of electronic equipment and failed to adhere to either DOI’s Standards for Inventory Control and Management or Comptroller’s Directive #1.   Specifically, we found that the BOE’s inventory records for both voting equipment and for general office equipment were incomplete and inaccurate.   While we were able to account for all but 11 of the 5,042 items listed in inventory records that we tested, we identified 287 items that BOE had purchased (both voting equipment and office equipment) and that were physically on-site in BOE premises but were not listed on its current inventory records, and we further found more than 1,000 items that were not properly tagged.  The large number of items on-site that were omitted from BOE’s inventory records raises a concern that the BOE’s inventory records are not consistently and reliably updated to reflect BOE’s receipt of incoming items.  In addition, we found numerous instances of noncompliance with other controls in both the Excel spreadsheets and S-Elect, including BOE’s failure to consistently record asset-control numbers and serial numbers, and the existence of duplicate serial numbers.

Audit Recommendations

The audit made the following eight recommendations that the BOE should:

• Ensure that all missing inventory items are located and accounted for.
• Maintain complete and accurate records of all equipment in accordance with DOI’s Standards for Inventory Control and Management and Comptroller’s Directive #1.
• Update its inventory records promptly and accurately when changes occur, including new purchases.
• Conduct an annual inventory count of all its major electronic equipment, ensuring that accurate information regarding all such items and their locations are properly recorded in BOE’s inventory records.
• Ensure that the annual inventory count of major electronic equipment is properly supervised.
• Affix proper identification tags marked “Property of the City of New York” to all electronic equipment items and include a sequential internal control number.
• Review and enhance its written inventory procedures and include all the requirements set forth by DOI’s Standards for Inventory Control and Management.
• Charge all office equipment purchases to the correct object code in accordance with Comptroller’s Directive #24, Agency Purchasing Procedures and Controls.

Agency Response

BOE generally agreed with the report’s findings and recommendations and described steps they have taken or will take to implement the report’s recommendations.  Further, BOE stated that   “The comptroller’s audit of Board of Elections in the City of New York (the ‘Board’) inventory practices for office equipment and voting machines has been instructive and will aid in improving the Board’s inventory practice.  The Board has worked diligently and cooperatively with the Office of the Comptroller of the City of New York in completing this necessary and informative process.”