Indiana Election Administrator’s Conference

Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS)

December 18, 2013

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Agenda

A little history…• The State, Baker Tilly, and Quest• HAVA and the SVRS• SVRS and RFPs• Award of the 2013 RFP• How SVRS changes are made

What’s coming up…• Taking Care of Business• 2013 December Hotfix Summary• 2014 March Build Summary• 2014 Web Training Sessions• Questions

An electronic version of this presentation will be made available on the SVRS County Portal.

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The State, Baker Tilly, and Quest IntroductionChristian Hoberland: SVRS Program Manager

Overview of Roles and Responsibilities• The State makes all final decisions, handles all legislation and

policy issues, decides on all enhancements and system changes, and administers the system

• Baker Tilly assists the State with technical expertise, program management, monitoring of system performance, and facilitation of system changes

• Quest makes all changes to the system, handles all training and help desk, provides system insight to the State, and covers all support and hosting of the system

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HAVA and the SVRS

Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Passed in 2002HAVA required states to develop a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level. Drafted (at least in part) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the goals of HAVA are:

• replace punch card and lever-based voting systems• create the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the

administration of Federal elections• establish minimum election administration standards.

New System and Capabilities Need by the StateIndiana, along with most other states, were now required to design, build, and support a new statewide voter registration system

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SVRS and RFPsThe Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS)

• In 2003 the State selected Baker Tilly to assist with program management on the RFP to design, build, and support SVRS

• Quest Information Systems was awarded that initial contract to build SVRS and has continued to provide support and enhancement services ever since

• Baker Tilly has also continued to provide program management services since 2003

• Indiana was one of only a handful of states to successfully roll out their statewide voter registration system on time and on the first try

10 years later… 2013 RFP for Support of SVRS• The State has a responsibility to evaluate the market and ensure the best

support service is provided for SVRS at the most competitive cost• In 2013 the State put forth an RFP to evaluate vendors for providing

ongoing support and enhancement for SVRS• Baker Tilly was asked to assist with the program management of this RFP• The process took approximately six months, benchmarked six other states,

and received four formal proposals with a total of over 1,000 pages

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Award of the 2013 RFPQuest Information Systems is Awarded the Contract

• After thorough evaluation in coordination with the Indiana Department of Administration, Quest was determined to be the best solution for Indiana and awarded the contract for continued support of SVRS

• Baker Tilly has also been contracted to continue in their SVRS support role

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How SVRS Changes are MadeTwo Builds and Two Hot Fixes Each Year

• Builds include more changes and are larger in scope• Hot fixes are for critical updates and are limited in scope• Long term planning is done by the State, BT, and Quest• The enhancement list is constantly changing as items are added,

refined, and completed

Changes are Constantly Prioritized• Legislative changes, requests from counties, and long term

improvements are catalogued and prioritized for inclusion in a build or hot fix

• All system changes are prioritized on need and scheduled for the next available build or hot fix

• Feedback is gathered on county requests to determine the level of impact and refine the approach; through surveys, email, and informal communication

• Communication is key; the more we know, the better we can help you

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Taking Care of Business

Quest is proud to have been selected as the SVRS vendor!!Committed to exploring/implementing newer technology and providing the best customer service possible.

New Team MembersSean Fahey: SVRS Operations ManagerChris Horne: SVRS Technical Project ManagerDarrin Snyder: SVRS Business Analyst

New Ways of County Participation County Advisory Team calls will be replaced by County Advisory Groups.

County Advisory Groups will be “specialized focus groups” Specialized groups utilized for gathering needs, best practices, and providing new

ideas essential to making SVRS better Special THANK YOU to County Advisory Team members

Allen, Bartholomew, Boone, Elkhart, Grant, Hamilton, Hendricks, Howard, Lake, LaPorte, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Porter, Saint Joseph, Spencer, Starke, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh, and Vigo

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Taking Care of Business

Knowledge ManagementLeverage from new interactive technologies

• Portal sites for more interaction and online content• Online meeting tools for more regular/flexible

communication• Regional training sessions

SVRS Improvement PlansSpecial projects to be completed in addition to normal build and hotfix schedules

• Mobile Application: Summer 2014• Election Night Reporting: Summer 2014• Ad Hoc Reporting: Fall 2014

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Taking Care of Business

SVRS Improvement Plans (continued)Electronic Pollbook/SVRS Project• Obtain Vendor Certification • Data from SVRS to EPB • Data from EPB back to SVRS

• Publish updated SVRS WSF architecture specifications

January, 2014

• Expose primary SVRS services in TEST environment for use by EPB vendors

February, 2014

• Release first round of WSF capabilities in production environment

March, 2014

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Taking Care of Business

SVRS Improvement Plans (continued)Electronic Pollbook/SVRS Project

What if I have an Electronic Pollbook/SVRS Project question?• Legal & policy questions: IED• Certification questions: VSTOP• SVRS technical questions: QUEST, VSTOP, and VENDORS

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Taking Care of Business (cont’d) Hotfix and Build Schedule

• 2013 December Hotfix Production: Evening of 12/18/13

• 2014 March Build Sandbox Data Refresh: 2/18/14 Sandbox: 2/19/14 Production: Evening of 3/12/14

• 2014 June Hotfix Sandbox: 6/17/14 Production: Evening of 6/25/14

• 2014 August Build Sandbox Data Refresh: 7/29/14 Sandbox: 7/30/14 Production: Evening of 8/20/14

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2013 December Hotfix Summary

Title Descriptions

Poll Listnon-partisan checkbox

• Non-partisan checkbox added to the primary poll book• Poll List full-name character limit – now displays names

over 25 characters

End Date Business Rule and Workflow

In the instance where a voter’s current status is “cancelled” and a county ties to the cancelled record – the cancelled record now becomes end dated. • End date requests are no longer necessary• Modification corrects application moving forward• Cleanup effort of records currently in this state -

addressed January 2014

Form Modifications The following forms have been updated to reflect the recent state form modifications ABS-18 VRG-7 VRG-11 VRG-11 Spanish

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2013 December Hotfix Summary (cont’d)

Title Descriptions

Kansas Interstate Agreement (Part 1)

Creating a query to provide a special extract to meet the Kansas requirements. This file will be encrypted, password protected, and uploaded to a secure site.

Part 2 – receiving data from Kansas will be addressed in an up-coming summer build.

Updated reports • Statewide Voter Counts by County and Status: Cancelled column removed.

• Deceased Voter Summary Listing: Precinct header removed.

• Issue with large reports occasionally timing out has been corrected.

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2013 December Hotfix Summary (cont’d)

Title Descriptions

Miscellaneous modifications

• CEB-9: Question 12 wording modified• CEB-9 Summary Report: Includes several cosmetic

modifications• CAN-19: Special Election business rule modified to include

the selection of CAN-19

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2014 March Build Summary

Title Descriptions

Attorney General Confidentiality Program – ABS Mailing Label modifications

Absentee labels generated for voter’s flagged as “protected” will generate with the Attorney General’s mailing address.

ABS form modifications

• Attorney General• Mail• Mail Spanish• In Person• In Person Spanish

• Traveling Board• ABS-5• ABS-9• ABS-13• ABS-18

Absentee business rule modifications

• Business rule updated to track and flag absentee ballots for voters in pending status.

• Data entry modifications - selections will change depending on ABS form selected.

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2014 March Build Summary

Title Descriptions

Confidentiality Program – Voter Registration

Removal of “Include Confidential” option from all reports

Social Security Admin’s Death Master File

Addition of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File to the DOH Hopper

Jury Duty Notice – NCOA Mailing

• Adding “Jury Duty Notice” as correspondence type• Allow “Jury Duty Notice” to flag as undeliverable• Undeliverable will generate and track NCOA mailing

SVRS Enhancements for EPBs

SVRS/EPBs enhancements include the following:• Ability to download specific data from SVRS for certified

Electronic Poll Book applications• Ability to upload specific data from certified Electronic Poll

Book applications back to SVRS

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Web Training Sessions

2014 specific web training dates TBD

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Questions