[2] In the event of a vacancy in the office of the state auditor, the governor may appoint a successor to serve the balance of the term.

[8][9][10][11] The state auditor's authority transcends jurisdictions and applies to all local governments, be they counties, cities, towns, school districts, local pension funds, metropolitan and regional agencies, or myriad special purpose districts, and to every state agency that receives federal financial assistance.

[14][15][16][17] In keeping with this position of trust, the state auditor renders opinions on the presentation of governments' financial statements and their overall fiscal health, examines compliance over financial management with internal controls, conducts best practices reviews of locally-delivered public services, reviews audit reports prepared by private accounting firms, and investigates complaints of waste, fraud, or abuse of public funds and resources.

[32][33][34] The state auditor also issues annual statutory reports on matters of asset forfeiture, municipal lobbying, and the condition of local public finances.

Following elimination of the Department of the Public Examiner, the elected state auditor took on the duty of supervising and auditing local government finances.

In the past 50 years, two incumbent auditors - Arne Carlson and Mark Dayton - have won competitive gubernatorial races.