October, 1996
CAMPAIGN '96 NIAGARA COUNTY FALLS FOR IMAGING
The race for the White House is on. Bill Clinton and Bob Dole are fighting it out in the streets, through the airwaves and - for the first time - on the Internet. Technology plays a bigger part in this race than in any previous election. For the voters of Niagara County, democracy now depends on imaging.
It's no secret that the Republicans and Democrats have fully embraced technology. Up-to-the-second computerized poll-tracking. Nanosegmented direct-mail fund drives. Web-based town meetings. America is witnessing the fusion of elections with electrons.
And it's not just the national parties. Across the country, individual Boards of Elections are going high-tech. The Niagara County Board of Elections (Lockport, NY 716-439-7223) is leading the way. Thanks to imaging, they're gushing towards the 21st century.
The Niagara BOE started using imaging in 1989, when they digitized the signatures of their 110,000 registered voters. Today, they rely on even more advanced imaging technology.
"Most people think we only work once a year during elections," says Lucille Britt, Niagara County's Commissioner for Elections. "It's a full-time, year-round job, because every registration has to be checked, entered and checked again.
"We have records that date back to 1919. Until recently, we used a system invented before these people were born to maintain our records.
"This system was time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive to maintain. We also needed lots of easily accessible storage space. Finding a record was difficult -- we filed everything by street order in each district.
"Our big concern was accuracy. While we were as accurate as possible, it wasn't 100% because everything was done manually. When we received a voter registration card, the staff looked up their name and address to see if they were already registered.
Each card was stored in a huge ring binder containing between 1,000 and 1,200 cards, making it a time-consuming process. Then we sent the voter an enrollment confirmation or change-of-address confirmation."
The system was slow -- but it worked. Apart from wanting to make the system more efficient, Britt was concerned about disasters. There was only one copy of each record. A fire could wipe out everything.
This was of particular concern during elections, because inspectors took the binders home and then to the polling place with the other electoral supplies. The final straw came in 1987, when an inspector fell while carrying a 60-pound binder and hurt herself.
Niagara County started looking at computerized systems for the 1989 election. Local elections are bigger than presidential elections. Residents vote for 250 officials -- compared to six during a presidential election.
NTS Data Services (Niagara Falls, NY 716-297-0553) was the only company able to handle the conversion and install a system that would let the Board of Elections handle their own day-to-day registrations after the conversion.
In 1988, imaging couldn't do much. (It would be Four More Years before Harry and Gerry elected to start Imaging Magazine!) At that time, it wasn't possible to scan entire registration cards cost-effectively. So NTS digitized the signatures on a flatbed scanner and key-entered each voter's name, address and registration number.
But, the system, called Sign-It, only went so far towards digitization. The Board of Elections staff had to manually edit and verify each entry.
"I'm pleased to say there were very few errors," says Britt. "The NTS staff did a great job. They converted all 110,000 signatures to electronic format in less than six weeks. They could have done it sooner, but all we were concerned about was having everything up and running for the 1989 local election."
The total cost, about $100,000, included the conversion, 10 Compaq PCs, a scanner, a 5 1/4" optical drive, printer and other peripherals. Optical was used because magnetic storage was expensive and had limited capacities.
"NTS met all our deadlines and the 1989 election was a huge success," says Britt. "We were able to bind everything into a book instead of having to carry the original cards to the polling place. This took up less space and gave us more information. The big plus was backup. Our information was available in two places -- on computer and in the book. I slept a lot better during that election."
Their setup sounds modest by today's standards, but that was just the beginning. Niagara County now has a Hewlett-Packard 9195A scanner to scan both sides of voter cards. This eliminates key entry. Each clerk has a Compaq PC. Two public-access computers let people view registration -- an ATM for suffragists.
Since the 1989 election, Niagara County has become more efficient. In 1992, they started using barcoding. This saved the district thousands of dollars when they conducted a voter history.
People who hadn't voted at least once in the previous four years received a postcard advising that their registration would be cancelled if they didn't respond. When the undeliverable cards came back, a clerk scanned the barcode. This saved time because the clerks didn't have to key-enter the voter registration number.
Technology also saves the BOE time during elections. All voters receive a notification telling them where to vote. When undeliverable notifications come back, the barcode is scanned. The voter is then sent a forwardable notice with a registration form telling them their registration will be cancelled if they don't respond.
Without barcodes, four additional people would be needed to do this.
Now, the district is a paragon of government efficiency. Fewer people do more work. They previously had 10 full-time and eight part-time clerks.
Today, they have eight full-time clerks and one part-time person. (They use 1,000 temporary employees to work the booths during election time.)
Another plus: a successful voter outreach program that the Niagara district has designed to encourage people to vote. This program registers more than 4,000 people each year.
The other benefit: monetary savings. The district saves more than $100,000 every year.
Not a bad return on a $100,000 investment!
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