Vol. 3, No. 9
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March 1, 2006
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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Top News Story:
Nevada Among Many States Out Of HAVA Registration Compliance
Secretary Of State Unable To Create Data Base; County Clerks Frustrated By Poor Showing
by Johnny Gunn
Federal law mandated the HAVA (Help Americans Vote Act) election program be in compliance by Election Day 2004. Many states including Nevada were unable to meet the deadline and it was extended to January 1, 2006. We are now in March, and Nevada's computerized database of registered voters is not available. According to many registrars of voters and county clerks, the program headed by Secretary of State Dean Heller is in complete disarray. Washoe County Registrar Dan Burk has said he doubts the system being developed will ever work.
Heller contracted with Covansys, Inc. to build a statewide computer based registration system, a contract valued at more than $4.5 million, and after paying the company $1.2 million there is no system. Heller says Covansys can fix the problems, but those that work with voter registration daily, the county clerks and voter registrars say the system is a complete failure and will probably never work as designed.
There are apparently two schools of thought within the Secretary of State's office. Chief Deputy Secretary of State Renee Parker said that a decision has not been made concerning Covansys and that litigation is being discussed.
A report from an organization called electionline.org (http://www.electionline.org) has issued a report detailing some of the problems that states are having in their attempts to be in compliance with HAVA regulations. According to the report, "What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why: Election Reform 2000-2006" problems are occurring across the country. Doug Chapin is director of the organization and he says, "The lack of progress in nearly half of the states throws into doubt whether HAVA's goals can be achieved in time for the November 2006 vote."
Over the years there have been many instances of voter registration fraud in Nevada, there are two FBI investigations ongoing at this time, and the concept of the computerized voter registration lists is supposed to clear up the problem. Voter registration database information is to be in a central computer in Carson City, and those registering to vote are to prove their identity, address, and other pertinent information. This is to be cross-checked with DMV, vital statistics, and other sources that would substantiate the person's identity.
In the past people have been found to be registered to vote in more than one county or district, dead people have been voting from time to time, and as happened in 2004, fraudulent registration forms were found to exist. Forms that had a name, address, party affiliation, even issued by a voter registrar, but upon checking, the person listed simply didn't exist.
Creating the database of registered voters would of course be one of the more simple parts of this project, it's keeping it safe and secure that is probably the biggest problem. So far, no one is saying exactly what the primary hold up is. If data is transferred electronically between various county entities and the Secretary of State's office, the lines must be secure for obvious reasons. From all the complaints that were voiced regarding electronic touch screen voting machines, the threat of hacking and voter fraud in the registration area is very real.
Dean Heller is not going to be the Secretary of State following the November elections and there is some concern among the various county officials that he may have already set his official duties aside in order to run for the Second Congressional Seat being vacated by Jim Gibbons. There hasn't been a single news release from his office since October of 2005, and he has not replaced former public information officer Steve George who moved to the Governor's office. Heller said at what was supposed to be a demonstration of the Covansys system, a demonstration that failed miserably, that a decision would be made after the November election on whether to continue working with the company. In other words, it will be up to the next Secretary of State to right the wrongs that have been building in the office.
Heller was hailed and rightly so for his efforts in the Silver State to bring the touch screen electronic voting on line. He responded to public pressure to force a paper trail to be part of the voting process, and it is his legacy. It's a shame that he hasn't put the same effort into the second half of the HAVA program and forced an electronic computerized database for voter registration. Whoever replaces Heller following the 2006 election will face a mangled mess of things according to most of the county clerks and voter registrars.
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