Rhode Island taps Covansys for voter system

Covansys Corp. has won a $2.8 million contract from the Rhode Island Secretary of State to provide a centralized voter registration system, the company announced this week. The system will be implemented by October 2004.

Under the contract, Covansys of Farmington Hills, Mich., will provide systems integration services for the design, development and implementation of a central voter registration system that will run on elections software developed by PCC Technology Group Inc. of Bloomfield, Conn.

Through a statewide data network, the Ocean State's 39 cities and towns will use a browser-based, thin client workstation to access the system. Through this network, statewide voter registration system users will initiate and carry out voter identification searches and verification through the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles driver license system.

For the state's registered voters, the system will increase customer service and reduce voter fraud by standardizing the registration process throughout the state using a central repository, the company said.

Covansys and PCC were hired to assist the Rhode Island in meeting the requirements of the Help America Vote Act. The act requires that all 50 states implement a centralized, interactive statewide voter registration system by January 2004.

Less than a quarter of the states are in compliance with the Help America Vote Act requirement for a statewide voter registration system, Covansys said. Most states have requested a waiver that allows them to delay implementation of a voting registration system until January 2006.

Covansys, a provider of consulting and technology services to government and commercial clients, has more than 5,100 employees and annual sales of $378.6 million, according to Hoover's Online of Austin, Texas.