IBM to Develop Arizona Voter Registration Management System15 January 2006
IBM has received a $9.4-million contract to
assist the State of Arizona in developing and implementing a statewide
system to make voter registration more efficient, secure and accurate.
The new Voter Registration Arizona System II will use IBM xSeries 346 and
336 systems and Election Systems & Software's PowerProfile Enterprise
Edition® voter registration and election management software with the
goal of implementing a secure, centralized database of registered voters.
The Web-based system will enable election officials in all Arizona counties
to process registrations on a centralized system, identify and eliminate
duplicate voter registrations and, when necessary, automatically transfer
voters from county to county.
This new system is designed to meet the requirements of the national Help
America Vote Act of 2002. It requires that by the 2006 elections, states
must have a statewide, centralized voter registration database.
Arizona installed a phase-one project in January of 2004, meeting the
early, basic requirements of HAVA while becoming one of the first states in
the nation to do so.
"VRAZ-II will build on the great success of VRAZ-I," said Jan Brewer,
Arizona Secretary of State. "The new system will make it much easier to
ensure that voter registration processes are the same across the entire
state, allowing all citizens to have a similar voting experience. It will
also increase the timeliness and accuracy of the voter registration data."
In most states, voter registration data has been maintained at the local
level. Increasing mobility of the population results in voter registration
files that are quickly outdated, increasing the complexity of voter
registration management and the possibility of voter fraud or inaccuracies.
Some Arizona counties have been on their current voter registration systems
since the early 1980s. The new system will replace those old systems with
newer and more reliable technology.
Through the development of the statewide voter registration system and
increased standardization and communication among counties, election
officials can achieve increased efficiency and integrity in voter
registration data management.
Under the contract, IBM will design, configure, and deploy the voter
registration management solution. The project goals are:
-- Improving voter registration accuracy
-- Reducing voter registration fraud
-- Improving voter registration data availability
-- Retaining the current system's functionality in the new system
The new system will be designed with the goal of helping to reduce voter
registration fraud and increasing registration accuracy by providing
real-time duplicate voter matching, utilizing court record and death record
matching capabilities, and matching voter registration data with the Motor
Vehicle Division's driver license database.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with more than
80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM employs over
3,700 people in Arizona. For more information about IBM, visit
http://www.ibm.com.
About Election Systems & Software
Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) is the world's largest and most
experienced provider of total election management solutions. For more than
three decades, ES&S has supported elections in the U.S. and abroad. Today,
the company partners with more than 1,700 jurisdictions in 47 states. In
2004, ES&S supported over 5,700 U.S. elections, alone. For more information
about ES&S, visit: http://www.essvote.com.
Contacts:
Lon Levitan
IBM
512-431-8688
llevitan@us.ibm.com
Kevin Tyne
Arizona Secretary of State's Office
602-542-4919
ktyne@azsos.gov
Rob Palmer
ES&S
402-938-1412
RSPalmer@essvote.com
SOURCE: IBM Corp.
Source: marketwire
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