Statewide Voter Registration Database Task Force
of HAVA State Plan Committee
Minutes of Meeting
Date & time: February 28, 2003
1 PM – 4 PM
Location: Manchester City Hall,
Aldermanic Council Chambers
Attendance:
Task force participants: William Armstrong, (NH Division of Information Technology Management, NH Dept. of Admin. Services); Leslie Boylan (Bow Supervisor); Paul Bergeron (Nashua City Clerk) Debbie Chalk (Bow Supervisor); Orville Fitch (Department of Justice);Chrissy Hanisco (NH Disabilities Rights Council); Carol Johnson (Manchester Deputy City Clerk); Dante Scala (St. Anselm College, Political Science Department); Anthony Stevens (Assistant Secretary of State); Charity Ross (House Democratic Leaders Office); Phil Vancalette (City of Manchester Information Technology Department)
Business:
Anthony Stevens explained the meeting’s purpose and agenda, gave a brief Power Point presentation describing the voter registration database background, purpose, HAVA funding, ground rules, and definitions of mission, vision, goals and objectives. With Stevens acting as facilitator and Orville Fitch acting as content expert and recorder, the participants began drafting the following mission, vision, goals and objectives of the Statewide Voter Registration Database Project.
The MISSION STATEMENT should answer the following questions:
People of New Hampshire
Local Election Officers
Political Parties
Candidates
Why should the statewide centralized voter registration system be developed?
To satisfy federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) legislation
To obtain federal dollars
Fair elections
MISSION STATEMENT:
The Secretary of State, in coordination with local election officials, will provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal elections laws and programs and establish minimum election administration standards for New Hampshire and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, for the statewide voter registration list, and other purposes.
Ensure the integrity of the election process for the inhabitants of the state of New Hampshire by implementing, in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner, a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained and administered at the State level, reflecting local government control of who is registered as a voter in each local jurisdiction.
1) Establish a statewide voter database that is easily implemented at the local level.
a) Have the database operational by January 1, 2006.
i) All jurisdictions have full access.
ii) A complete statewide database is established.
b) Have test sites (pilots) operational by September 2005.
c) Have upload process initiated by June 1, 2004.
d) Instructions and interfaces used by officials are written so as to be easily understood by a person with a ninth grade education.
i) Measurement - Establish baseline – establish the reading level of existing instructions.
2) Voter registration process should be easily understood by voters.
a) Instructions used by voters are written so as to be easily understood by a person with a ninth grade education.
i) Measurement – Begin by establishing a baseline – the reading level of existing instructions.
3) Voter registration process should be accessible to all inhabitants qualified to register and vote. Accessibility includes the ability to submit required proofs of age, citizenship, and domicile for those unable to register or vote in person.
a) 508 compliance (federal statutes on accessibility) – for the website by date the pilot project becomes operational.
b) Help desk technology –making information on registration and voting available through a technology based telecommunications system. Future implementation.
c) Maintain absentee voting process for qualified individuals with disabilities and implement any new technology based alternatives by the date the pilot project becomes operational.
d) Maintain absentee registration process that allows qualified individuals with disabilities to register to vote by mail and implement any new technology based alternatives by the date the pilot project becomes operational.
e) Ensure system complies with federal law relative to military and overseas voters by September 2005 or earlier, as required by federal law.
f) Affidavits required for absentee voting available on the website by November 2003.
4) The records in the database are accurate and secure.
a) Establish levels of access to the system by January 2004.
i) Who can see what?
ii) Who can change what?
iii) Does the level of access change over time, i.e. fifteen years after purge records become public or become available for genealogical research? Where? Standards for access? Which data fields, i.e. DOB maybe, SS# no, etc.?
b) Archive/backup standards
c) Security – Who from a given jurisdiction gets to access the system? Who can look? Who can make changes? Audit trail on changes made?
d) Security:
i) Image of data made at appropriate times during the year, i.e. at the end of each Election Day. (stored on CD ROMS or equivalent)
ii) Protection from hackers- level C2 for data before any storage systems are accessible via web.
iii) Who gets to set security levels? Can towns alter or issue security or must this be done at the state level?
5) Systems are user-friendly for the technologically challenged.
6) Necessary legislation is enacted to allow implementation of a statewide voter registration list.
a) 2003:
b) 2004:
c) 2005:
7) Establish timelines for each phase of implementation.
8) Protect the privacy of personal information stored in the database.
9) Standards established apply uniformly to federal, state, and local elections, including village or water districts.
10) Effective and uniform training is provided to all local government officials and personnel who will use the statewide voter registration list.
11) Plans and processes for uploading data from existing local databases and paper records systems should involve as little effort by local officials as possible. Local technology personnel should be actively involved starting early in the process.
a) Have all data fields identified by September 1, 2003.
12) The system process for local election officials updating records, such as changing addresses, should be easy and efficient.
13) Provide public education on the voter registration and voting process.
14) Provide education for election officers on the requirements for proof of age, citizenship, and domicile.
15) Address language issues – communication systems being available in other languages
16) The registration process for an applicant for voter registration should be clear, easy, and efficient.
17) Establish the data fields to be established in the data base. Define data base structures.
a) Establish data fields by September 2003 and communicate to each jurisdiction by October 2003.
18) Identify the reports that each user will require from the database.
a) Define the data that the system will need to report out.
i) Example: data needed for conducting purges of the database.
ii) Example: data needed to print a voter checklist for Election Day.
iii) Example: data needed to send a purge letter to an individual on the checklist.
b) Define the formats that reports will be printed in.
i) What size printers/plotters will be required?
ii) What paper stock?
iii) What font sizes will be used? (Standard statewide or local choice, if local choice what range of options will be available?)
iv) What will be printed at the state level versus at the local level?
(1) Will this vary from town to town?
(2) Flexibility for last minute printing
19) Identify any data manipulation that each user type will require.
20) Geographic Information Systems interface for voter records. (For use in redistricting, …)
21) Establish standing advisory committee.
22) Establish the communications between cities and towns to be automatically provided by the system, for example notification from the town where a person newly registers to the town where the person was previously registered. Address the limitations, if any, to be placed on access of the records of one town by another town.
23) Establish the funding plan – specify what, if any, costs local jurisdictions will be responsible for.
24) Establish communication with local jurisdictions to ensure that conflicting or unnecessary expenditures are not made.
a) Notice from Secretary of State to jurisdictions before town meeting times in March, 2003.
i) Notify jurisdictions of the election law changes being promoted to bring NH law into compliance with HAVA – specifically form changes.
Action Item:
It was agreed that the first draft of mission, vision, goals and objectives should be circulated to the State Plan Committee and Task Force Participants and to utilize future meetings to refine the draft and to develop measurement criteria for each objective.