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Indianapolis, IN - As the deadline of January 1, 2006 for implementing Indiana's first statewide list of registered voters nears, the Secretary of State's office continues to offer monthly updates regarding the status of implementation of the Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS), or FirstTuesday,Ô created by Quest Information Systems.

The massive undertaking to link all 92 Indiana counties began more than two years ago as an initiative by Indiana election administrators and legislators, and then as part of Indiana's implementation of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. The project is to be completed and the new system completely implemented by the end of the year. In May, a pilot version of the new system was implemented in ten counties selected from over forty who volunteered to serve as pilot counties. The pilot counties are Benton, Fayette, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Rush, Spencer and Wayne. All pilot counties are now using the system to add voters and maintain voter registration records through FirstTuesday

As of last week, 83 of the 92 counties in Indiana are successfully online and using SVRS, and remaining counties are scheduled for completion this month. As of today, all counties have begun using FirstTuesday .

"An integral component to the success of this plan was to have our Voter File 'live' far enough in advance of the next election so that we had an opportunity to continue to enhance our system with input from our counties," Rokita said. "We are in a unique position to be seven months out from the next election with 95% of our counties online with the remaining counties set for completion before the end of the year. This will afford us the opportunity to gain vital feedback identifying and isolating challenges along the way. We have continued to streamline FirstTuesday's performance and efficiency, which should prove beneficial, before bringing online Indiana's three largest counties. This was a direct benefit of getting the pilot counties on the system in May and capitalizing on the interactive feedback gathered from the very people who will utilize the system."

The SVRS County Coordination Team has completed comprehensive surveys for sixty-one counties who have been working with the FirstTuesday software. The surveys provide an opportunity for county officials to communicate their post implementation experiences and develop feedback on areas regarding training, support and general performance. These reviews will assist the State in understanding how county officials view the new system in addition to the success of the new program and whether they find it better than their previous systems.

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