Accenture Helps States Get Out The VoteAccenture Helps States Get Out The Vote

As President Bush and the Democratic presidential hopefuls build up their war chests for the 2004 race, states are turning their attention to building electronic voter-registration databases and replacing punch-card and lever voting systems with on-site electronic systems. The Help America Vote Act of 2002, passed after the troubled 2000 election, requires these changes.

Congress has authorized $1.5 billion in funding to subsidize compliance efforts, and some states want help to modernize their electoral processes. IT services vendor Accenture last week launched an eDemocracy Services unit to build such systems. Interested parties include the state of Florida, home of the notorious hanging chad on ballots in the 2000 presidential election. Accenture says it's working with Florida to develop an electronic voting system that will eliminate that problem.

Other states are going it alone. Arizona was one of the first to be in full compliance with the act. Secretary of state Jan Brewer saved significantly by using state IT workers to develop Arizona's E-voting systems, according to a legislative update the County Supervisors Association of Arizona issued last month.

Accenture also is working with the Department of Defense to build a system that will let overseas military personnel vote over the Internet in time for the 2004 elections. Hart InterCivic Inc. and VeriSign Inc. are helping the vendor develop security tools to ensure the integrity of online voting. But the Internet won't become a standard voting medium anytime soon. "There's still a lot we need to work on," says Accenture partner Meg McLaughlin. "It will be an evolutionary process."