Pa. taps Accenture for electors registry

Accenture Ltd. won a five-year, $18.5 million contract from the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth to provide a statewide uniform registry of electors, the state announced July 24.The Pennsylvania General Assembly is providing $8.5 million to launch the project along with $2 million annually for ongoing systems development and maintenance, said Peter Soh, a spokesman for the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company.The system is slated for statewide rollout during fall 2003, Accenture said. Under the contract, Accenture will provide a centralized voter registration and election management system for the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors.The system is based on Garden City, N.Y.-based Election.com's systems manager voter registration and election management software, Accenture said. The software provides an integrated voter registration and election management system intended to streamline the election administration process. Pennsylvania's system will be designed to consolidate voter registration data maintained separately by each of the state's 67 counties. The counties will be supported by a centralized database, which can provide for consistent voter-registration processes, procedures and database management across all counties, while enabling them to access statewide data sources to help verify voter eligibility.The system is to serve as a common platform that supports key election management functions, ranging from determining voter eligibility and assigning precincts to producing district voter registers.The system will provide county election officials with a tool that will enable them to maintain reliable lists of legally registered voters, said C. Michael Weaver, Pennsylvania's secretary of the commonwealth.