October 23, 2007

State in Compliance with HAVA

MONTGOMERY – Governor Bob Riley will report to a federal judge on Wednesday  that not only is Alabama in compliance with a federal voting law, it came into compliance quicker than any other state based on when work on the project actually began.

“Alabama is fully in compliance,” said Governor Bob Riley.  “All 67 counties now have a uniform, automated voter registration system as required.

“Not only are we in compliance, if you look at when this project got started and when it was finished, we believe Alabama got into compliance in a shorter amount of time than any other state.”

Governor Riley was appointed as special master by U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins in August 2006 – 14 months ago – and put in charge of developing a statewide voter registration system required by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA).  This court mandate came after the state failed to meet a Jan. 1, 2004 deadline for HAVA compliance, and then failed to meet a subsequent Jan. 1, 2006 deadline that came about after the then-secretary of state requested a two-year extension.

The state entered into a contract with Election Systems and Software on March 5, 2007 – less than eight months ago – to provide software, training, coordination and implementation of Alabama’s voter registration database.

The Governor on Wednesday will report to Judge Watkins that the state has successfully developed and implemented “a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration system” in accordance with the court’s order and the requirements of HAVA.