Review of 2020 Election Continues as Texas, Pennsylvania Counties Find Ballot Total Discrepancies

An audit of the 2020 election found a discrepancy of nearly 600 absentee votes in a Texas county, while a hand recount in a Pennsylvania county found a far smaller disparity, as more states seek to implement election reviews.

In Smith County, Texas, an audit of the 2020 election showed 584 more absentee voters than absentee ballots, according to KLTV, a local ABC News affiliate. Seven county races were within the 584-vote margin of error, including council races and propositional elections. The audit also found five different totals for absentee ballots.

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Smith County Must Pay $35,000 for Not Complying with Obamacare, Audit Says

The federal government assessed the Smith County School System more than $35,000 for not complying with Obamacare, according to a state audit released this week. Smith County taxpayers, of course, will have to pick up the slack and pay that fine. The audit, however, did not offer specifics. “During the year, the School Department paid a penalty of $37,180 to the Internal Revenue Service for failure to comply with the Affordable Care Act for 2015,” according to Tennessee Comptrollers. “The School Department provides health insurance coverage to its employees; however, this coverage was not in compliance with federal regulations for certain employees. This deficiency resulted from a lack of management oversight.” Smith County Mayor Jeff Mason, in an email, deferred all The Tennessee Star’s questions to Director of Schools Barry Smith. Smith, on the phone, however, deferred all questions to the school system’s Chief Financial Officer Norma Mitchell. Mitchell did not return two requests seeking comment. Other county governments in Tennessee have had their finances suffer due to Obamacare. As The Tennessee Watchdog reported in 2015, an audit from Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson said Obamacare might have forced Robertson County officials to choose between raising taxes and breaking the law.…

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Report: Smith County Library Director Cheated Taxpayers

Smith County Library

Tennessee Comptrollers have called out the director of the Smith County Library in Carthage for taking money from taxpayers for working hours she, in fact, did not work. She got away with it because her supervisors weren’t watching her all that closely, auditors said. State Comptrollers released their audit Friday. County taxpayers lost $331.55 for time the library director did not work, according to the audit. That may seem like a paltry sum of money compared to other instances of government waste, fraud and abuse across the state. But $331.55 is the only loss Comptrollers could prove, and they said it’s likely the library director took off far more time than that. No one at the Smith County Library was available to talk Sunday. “Our investigation revealed two instances in which the library director was not working on Wednesday when auditors and officials requested to speak with the library director,” Comptrollers wrote. “In those two instances, we were able to document the library director submitted time sheets reflecting that she had worked on those days she was not at the library.” Comptrollers said they interviewed other library employees for this report. “Our interviews with library employees indicated that the library…

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