JEFFERSON CITY — A public spat between two of Missouri’s top Republicans spilled into a second day Tuesday as Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft defended his office against a stinging report issued by Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.
Ashcroft, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, said an audit of his office released Monday focusing on ballot security was “false” and misleading and may have been the product of a political campaign against him.
“These are political opinions. This is not good government to have politics in official reports,” Ashcroft told reporters gathered in his office near the Capitol.
Fitzpatrick, at a press conference later Tuesday, said the auditing process used by his staff was “typical” and not an attack.
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“There is no good benefit to get in a fight with the Secretary of State’s office,” Fitzpatrick said.
At issue are findings outlined in an audit that blasted Ashcroft for withdrawing from a national system designed to improve the accuracy of voting rolls last year.
Fitzpatrick said Ashcroft’s March 2023 decision to leave the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, will cause local election authorities to have less information to identify and correct inaccurate voter records because the office did not have a plan to replace the benefits received from membership in the coalition.
Ashcroft denied the accusations, saying planning and follow-up did occur, ensuring that the state’s county clerks have other options to ensure voting rolls are clean.
“It took us about a year to make that decision because we wanted to… make sure Missouri elections continue to be the gold standard,” Ashcroft said. “The auditor is incorrect.”
In addition to criticisms over withdrawing from ERIC, the audit found that Ashcroft’s office refused to provide information on the office’s implementation of a new law to perform cyber security reviews of Missouri’s 116 local election authorities.
Ashcroft said his office could not turn over documents because of agreements made with a “vast majority” of election authorities that prohibited the release of information.
He said Fitzpatrick should have taken the matter before a judge if he wanted a resolution.
“It is ridiculous to say our office didn’t follow the law,” Ashcroft said.
Fitzpatrick said a decision was made to move forward without court intervention because of cost and time concerns.
“This work was done how it was supposed to be done,” Fitzpatrick said.
In addition, Ashcroft said the law cited by Fitzpatrick wasn’t fully in effect during the audit period.
Ashcroft told reporters that the culprit for the report may not be Fitzpatrick, but a former Secretary of State employee who now works as the auditor’s chief of staff.
“I’ll tell you this: It’s understandable why the people of this country and the people of Missouri can think that there’s a ‘deep state’ when things like this happen,” Ashcroft said. “I don’t know how much the state auditor had to do with this. Reasonably we could expect that this was done by bureaucrats in his office.”
Asked if the former staffer, Brandon Alexander, had an ax to grind, Ashcroft would not elaborate.
“I would just say he is no longer here. We wish him the best of luck where he is,” he said.
Fitzpatrick said he reviews and approves all audits that are released by his office.
“I put my name on it,” he said. “This is not a personal issue.”
Alexander was a legislative aide in the House before Ashcroft tapped him as an elections director. Alexander worked for Fitzpatrick when he became treasurer and then moved to the auditor’s office last year when Fitzpatrick was elected to the post.
Ashcroft is vying for the GOP nomination against Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring. Democrats seeking the top post include House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, and southwest Missouri businessman Mike Hamra.