In spite of protests from Central Electoral Board (JCE) magistrates, the government’s Accounting Office is auditing the contract which supplied the JCE with an electronic voting system valued at over RD$2.0 billion, resulting from a hotly contested public bid. This bone of contention between the two government entities centers on the contract given to the SOMO consortium to provide electronic registration of births, deaths and marriages as well as voter registration, plus 14,000 electronic voting machines for the presidential election in 2008. The audit has provoked anger within the electoral tribune, and the magistrates have denounced the fact that the auditors want to look at the software programs to be used for the registry offices, as well as the terms of reference contained in the contract. The auditors also want to see the original bids submitted by the three losing companies.