Monday, October 31, 2005
Better Indiana Voter Registration System On The Way
Secretary of State Rokita Checks Out New System in Whitley County
NEW - Allen County to be Online November 28th
Todd Rokita, visited Columbia City last week to talk with the County Clerk's office about implementation of the new Indiana computerized voter registration system by First Vote. Rokita told the Columbia City Post & Mail that 83 counties of the 92 were already online with the system. He said that the most populous counties will be be implemented last.
NEW: Barry W. Schust, head of the Allen County Voter Registration office told Indiana Parley today that Allen County expects to be online with the new system on November 28, 2005.
One of the goals of the new system is to reduce incidents of voter fraud.One way the system helps reduce fraud is by keeping track of old addresses and raising flags at both ends of the system when a repeat name occurs.Rokita held out the possibility that the Secretary of State's office will organize a mock election to test out the new system before the 2006 election. Indiana Parley's observation would be that voter turnout will be so light for the 2006 Republican and Democratic primary election that it will effectively be a "mock" election.
A Global Information System is also part of the new program, which allows the clerk's office to pinpoint a voter's residence and helps with instances of fraud.
“It's a little clunky sometimes,” said Deb Fairchild, with the clerk's office, about the GIS part of the program.
Most GISs are not updated until after a census, so new roads or subdivisions may not be able to be automatically mapped, requiring someone in the clerk's office to manually enter the location.
