Date: 03/01/2006
Final
Briefing by Secretary of State Concerning SCORE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON -- SELECT -- GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
| Votes: View--> | Action Taken: |
| <none> | <none> |
12:14 PM -- Briefing from the Secretary of State
Gigi Dennis, Colorado Secretary of State, introduced herself and discussed the department's experience in developing a statewide voter database system, referred to as SCORE (Statewide Colorado Registration and Election). The vendor was selected by a committee including Secretary of State staff and several county clerks. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) had indicated the structure of the product seemed sound. It became clear that the software would not be available in time to meet the January 2006 deadline. The state has signed a non-disparagement agreement, but information about the process of choosing and then breaking the contract with the company is available as public record. Secretary Dennis described the process by which the company was selected. The department has had refunded all of the $10 million of the original project and has that money available to select another vendor and begin to implement the project. The department actually got back more than had been spent with the original contractor. The Information Management Committee (IMC) will oversee the selection process and will perform independent verification and validation (IV&V).
12:24 PM
Senator Teck asked what the IV&V oversight had been during the process of determining that the product would not be delivered in the time necessary. Secretary Dennis indicated that there had been concerns raised by the oversight entity, but response to the problem was delayed due to the transition from the former administration to the current one. The office is currently considering whether to hire a new project manager with the new request for proposals. Brian Mouty, who was the project manager under the canceled contract is still on staff for the project. Senator Grossman asked if Accenture LLP, the unsuccessful contractor was the lowest bidder in the original bidding process. Mr. Brian Balay from the SOS office indicated that the vendor was not the cheapest in the first year, but over 5 years was the cheapest.
12:29 PM
Bill Hobbs, Deputy Secretary of State, responded to Senator Hanna's question about when the Secretary of State's office had first learned of the delays from the vendor. Mr. Hobbs said the vendor had acknowledged they were behind fairly early in the process, but the office felt it was not yet time to terminate the contract.
12:32 PM
Secretary Dennis indicated that a system would not be in place in time for either the 2006 primary or general elections. Senator Groff asked what the impact of not having the system in place would be on the state. Secretary Dennis indicated there will be no impact on the 2006 elections from the standpoint of the state and running a successful election. It is unclear whether there will be ramifications from the federal government given that the program will not be in place in time for the elections. She has not heard from the feds that there would be ramifications and the office has been careful to keep the federal government aware of what has happened with the vendor and where they are in the process of identifying a new vendor and moving forward to develop the program.
12:37 PM
Brian Balay, Chief Information Officer, Colorado Secretary of State's Office, responded to Senator Teck's question about why, if there is not going to be an impact on the upcoming election, we have to purchase any software and implement this program to begin with. Mr. Balay responded that the requirements are part of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) that requires states to have a consistent management system and centralized oversight of their voting system in time for the 2006 elections.
12:41 PM
Secretary Dennis described a pilot program between North Carolina and another state to mesh their election systems to find if people were registered in both states and were subsequently voting in both states. While both states noted similar residents with addresses in each state, there was nothing to indicate that people were voting in both states.
12:43 PM
Senator Hanna asked about a newspaper report indicating the department had decertified several voting machines. Secretary Dennis responded that counties are required to utilize voting machines that have been certified. Optical scanning machines had been used in nine counties in which vote audits following the election did not match the reported results of the votes. In some cases, election results had been changed after the counties had done a hand count of votes to determine the correct result. Those counties have had to purchase new voting machines. Secretary Dennis also noted that electronic voting machines are now required to have paper receipts to ensure the correct results on the vote.
12:48 PM
Secretary Dennis continued her presentation of what will happen now with regard to developing a new statewide election database. The new program will have oversight from OIT and the department is looking at what other states have done with regard to implementing the state database requirements. Senator Groff asked about possible security concerns with the new request for proposals (RFP). Brian Balay responded that there will be some type of encryption to ensure security of voter data.
12:56 PM
Senator Groff asked whether monitoring systems would be different in the oversight of this RFP based on the experience with the previous vendor. Mr. Balay responded that there had been good monitoring with the previous vendor, which is why the office was able to identify problems quickly. The have added some initial requirements for the latest round of requests to help ensure the preparedness of the vendor to develop the product. Secretary Dennis stated that the state's procurement process has been difficult to maneuver around. Senator Teck asked her to expand on that, to explain the experiences the office has had in soliciting vendors for projects. Mr. Hobbs responded that there have been situations where the process is so drawn out that in some cases the funding has expired, the technology has changed, or something else has happened to interrupt the contract. Senator Teck asked whether it was possible to do certain tasks simultaneously rather than sequentially to help alleviate some of those problems. Mr. Hobbs said they have in fact taken that strategy recently with the state disaster recovery website.
01:07 PM
The committee asked whether the selection committee was aware of problems with other Accenture contracts. Mr. Hobbs noted that he was not part of the selection committee, but he stated that the committee did not have information about the problems the company had. The company had not previously developed voter registration system software so there was not an indication of problems in that area.
01:09 PM
Senator Groff noted next week's committee meeting which will be held March 8. Senator Owen asked the representatives from the Secretary of State's office for more information about the Real ID program proposed at the federal level.
01:09 PM
The committee adjourned.