Election TidBytes

Quarterly Newsletter of Election Technology “Tidbits”

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Issue 6, July 2001

Inside this Issue:

· Streamlining Election Administration in Arkansas

· Meet Glenn Newkirk, InfoSENTRY’s President

· TidBytes Tip — Use the RFP as a Management Tool

· InfoSENTRY Services

· Keep Us Posted

InfoSENTRY might mention the names of vendors’ products or services from time to time in Election TidBytes. However, we do not distribute, sell, license, nor endorse any of these products or services.

Streamlining Election Administration
in Arkansas

S

oon after taking office in 1995, Arkansas Secretary of State Sharon Priest initiated a statewide voter registration database project. The automation project was a major priority for Secretary Priest to strengthen and streamline election administration in Arkansas.

The project moved quickly after it received funding from the General Assembly. The Secretary's Elections Department worked to select hardware, select and customize software, and implement the system in Arkansas' counties. Secretary of State staff members went to the County Clerks’ offices to help in a host of tasks ranging from cabling networks to installing new software. Seventy-four of the seventy-five counties used the new system in the 1996 elections.

Since then, project staff has extended the application into all the counties, developed the statewide database of over 1.5 million registered voters, and structured operations of the statewide network. The State provided a full upgrade of hardware and software in 1999–and additional software upgrades in 2000 – 2001.

The system divides Arkansas’ counties into three tiers based on the number of registered voters. The smallest counties have standalone personal computers. The largest counties have small computer networks. Everyone has a standard software suite.

In 1999, the Secretary of State completed a project to connect all county election systems to the Internet. This capability allows greater flexibility and control in moving files to the counties and retrieving their update files.

The upgrade in 1999 delivered the Microsoft Office suite to all counties. This package provided yet another capability to the statewide system: election night reporting. Counties used templates created in a custom designed package to prepare Election Year 2000 results locally and transmit them to the Secretary of State's office.

In 2001, the AR Secretary of State's office upgraded all operating systems to Windows 2000. The statewide database now runs on a Microsoft SQL-2000 platform. The “front end” for the state-level system is largely Microsoft Access 2000, which provides a substantial majority of the database management and reporting capabilities.

The State database serves as a "mirror" of the county databases, with a 1-to-1 match between the county records and the State database. The State database contains basic voter registration data that is in the official county files.

During the file transfer sessions with the counties, the Secretary of State’s office sends to the counties electronic copies of voter registration applications, plus digitized signatures, entered by systems in the Division of Motor Vehicles. The state receives weekly electronic updates of newly added, modified, or deleted registrations from the counties.

Two help desk staff members in the Secretary of State’s Elections Department provide telephone support to the County Clerks. If the support staff is not able to resolve an issue, it is escalated to the vendor.

Jeanette Heinbockel, Director of the Elections Department, indicated the importance of training and support in establishing a statewide voter registration system. The staff’s organization, dedication, and connection with the counties reflect this priority.

Ms. Heinbockel pointed to several major benefits that the state, its counties, and its voters have derived from the system. One main benefit has been greater public access to the information. The Secretary of State's Office sells the entire contents of statewide database for the cost of the media, which is usually $2.50. The counties can sell their own individual data files if they want to do so.

Another benefit has been an infusion of information technology into Arkansas’ counties. The County Clerks’ offices have received computers, software, technology training, and Internet access in this coordinated, sometimes fast-paced project.

A major benefit has been cleaner voter rolls, with greatly reduced “deadwood” and multiple registrations. In 2000 - 2001, the Secretary of State's Office undertook an innovative project to improve data quality. Counties had the option of receiving peripheral hardware (such as a printer) from the Secretary of State's Office or having a vendor technician come to their offices for a day to work with them on data quality and database maintenance. Thirty-one counties out of seventy-five chose the data quality assistance over the hardware. Additional counties are receiving data quality assistance in conjunction with preparation for redistricting.

At a time in which horror stories are told of information systems that are critically behind schedule, frightfully over budget, and seriously off the targeted business requirements, the Arkansas Secretary of State’s statewide voter registration database offers a great contrast. It has held to its scope, stayed within budget, and met its critical deadlines.

InfoSENTRY maintains a database of statewide voter registration systems activity. We extend our thanks to State Elections Directors who have provided us with periodic updates for our files and look forward to getting more information as systems evolve. Please contact glenn_newkirk@infosentry.com.

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Meet Glenn Newkirk,
InfoSENTRY’s President

G

lenn Newkirk is the President and co-founding partner of InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. Glenn is a leading authority on elections information systems and has worked for the past several years with state and local election officials on a wide variety of systems projects. In NC, IL, PA, and OR, he prepared needs assessments and requirements analyses for statewide voter registration systems. For local elections officials, he has provided a full range of project management services for elections systems projects. He also conducted a project assessment and quality review of a statewide voter registration system that was having major problems with a vendor’s implementation, making recommendations for the recovery of the project.

Glenn recently directed an assessment of the status of a $30 million e-government system implementation project on behalf of the Arkansas General Assembly. The review determined that the project was approximately $10 million over budget and at risk of missing its target completion date for delivering the large system as contracted.

Before forming InfoSENTRY Services, Inc., Glenn was the Director of Legislative Automated Systems for the North Carolina General Assembly. He comments, "The hardest work I had in 10 years with the General Assembly was putting in and managing the information system used for redistricting. Every element of that project was done under heavy fire and eventually major litigation."

Glenn's work before the stint in the North Carolina General Assembly was with the National Conference of State Legislatures where he designed, implemented, and managed that organization’s nationwide Legislative Information System. At the University of Denver, Glenn taught research methods and statistics. There he also studied under Professor Josef Korbel, the distinguished father of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

He has published over 30 articles and a dozen monographs on topics ranging from multivariate factor analysis to the potential uses of the Internet for voting.

Glenn will be attending the NASED and NASS conference in Little Rock AR and he would love to meet and talk with you about your elections systems needs and concerns.

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InfoSENTRY Services

I

nfoSENTRY offers a full range of independent management services to elections offices for their IT projects: needs assessments, requirements analyses, RFP preparation and monitoring, vendor evaluations, contract drafting, implementation management, and acceptance testing. Of course, we also like to organize the celebration parties when the systems are implemented successfully!

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TidBytes Tip

U

se the RFP as a Project Management Tool. Many offices use an RFP as a way to hire a vendor. Sometimes, they write a minimal RFP so that a specific vendor will get the job. In some instances, the systems vendor even helps write the RFP that they will bid on and the contract they will execute. Then we wonder why almost ½ of computer projects finish so over budget, are so late that they negatively affect the organization, or don’t meet all the needs and requirements. Another 1/3 of all major computer projects are abandoned outright. We suggest a much more active approach to using the RFP as a project management tool. Here are some things your RFP should do:

1: Use the RFP to “manage realistic expectations” of your office, your elections board or commission, and the potential vendor(s).

2: Communicate clearly the organizational environment in which the system will run.

3: Communicate clearly the hardware, software, and network environment in which the new system must operate.

4: Lay out clearly the business requirements that the new system must meet.

5: Specify the software requirements and software design specifications for the new system.

6: Specify the format for the vendors’ responses.

7: Specify how you will evaluate the responses, including general plans for site visits and reference checks.

8: Give a general schedule, including any “go live” or “drop dead” dates for the installation.

9: State clearly that you will require a comprehensive acceptance test of all the elements of the delivered product before you will make any final payment.

10: State clearly that the RFP and the successful vendor’s proposal will be incorporated in the final contract as needed.

This approach will not guarantee that your project is a success. It might even help you find out that no vendors can meet all of your requirements…unlike all those promises in brochures and at trade shows would indicate. However, using the RFP as a project management tool can help you avoid falling into the 1/2 that are seriously hurt by the process and the other1/3 that simply fail.

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Keep Us Posted

T

here is always something great happening in the elections community. In previous issues of this newsletter we have presented interesting articles of innovative programs and solutions that have provided a benefit to both the elections office and the public. If you would like us to help you get the word out about some technical bit of news in your office or state, let us know or send us your article. Please contact us at:

InfoSENTRY Services, Inc.

2 Hannover Square, Suite 1740

Raleigh NC 27601

Telephone: 919•838•8570 Fax: 919•838•8572

www.infosentry.com

glenn_newkirk@infosentry.com

jennifer_helget@infosentry.com

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©InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. 2001. All rights reserved. Copying or otherwise making multiple copies of this publication without express written permission of InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. is prohibited. For permission to distribute the newsletter in multiple copies, please contact Jennifer_helget@infosentry.com. InfoSENTRY might mention the names of vendors’ products or services from time to time in Election TidBytes. However, we do not distribute, sell, license, nor endorse any of these products or services.