The following questions are all specifically conversion related. None of these questions has been received from New Jersey users yet, but we anticipate these questions based on our conversion experience thus far in other states. These questions usually come after the first set of exception reports are generated for a county. In New Jersey, this begins to happen for some counties as early as mid-May.

Are all the Voter Registration Records from a county’s existing legacy system contained in the Exception Reports?

Why is data identified as being invalid or in an error condition?

Questions and Answers:

Why is New Jersey creating a Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS)?

The federal “Help America Vote Act of 2002” (HAVA) requires that by January 1, 2006, we implement a centralized and interactive statewide voter registration system that will be defined, maintained and administered at the state level. SVRS is intended to improve the integrity, reliability and accuracy of voter registration information; to provide the capability for uniform procedures statewide; and in the end, to help New Jersey election officials to better serve their voters.

back to top

How will voter registration information be moved into SVRS?

We will perform a structured and detailed conversion process where we will first obtain the voter registration information from each county and convert it into the fields and format required by SVRS. Reports for verification and data cleansing will be sent back to each county, and the county will make any necessary changes to their data on their existing system. This process will be repeated a second time, and then the third exchange of data will occur for the final conversion to go live with the system.

back to top

What kind of functionality will SVRS provide?

In general, SVRS will fulfill HAVA requirements and the requirements that were specified in the State’s Request for Quotation (RFQ). The areas of functionality that the system supports are:

• Voter Registration – includes duplicate voter identification
• Voter History – includes name, address, birth date, election, and correspondence history
• County Data maintenance – includes county clerk, board of elections, superintendent and commissioner information as well as municipal clerk data. Also includes street maintenance and district changes.
• Election maintenance – add/modify elections, assign poll workers
• Absentee application and ballot processing
  Redistricting support
• Poll worker tracking and maintenance
• Polling places maintenance
• Petitions and candidate maintenance
• External interfaces – includes exchange of data with Department of Corrections, Parole Board, Department of Health and Senior Services and Motor Vehicle Commission.
• Standard and ad-hoc reporting – includes labels and poll books
• Centralized inquiry processing
• System administration functions – such as maintaining users, printers, and running batch processes

back to top

Who will have access to the statewide voter list?

Election officials in each county will have access to view the entire statewide voter list, but only for a specified number of fields which are necessary to identify unique voter identity. Each county will have access to update and report on voter information for voters registered in their county only. Municipal Clerks will have read-only access to the statewide list and information pertinent to their operation.

back to top

What’s the difference between SVRS and ElectioNetTM?

5A: ElectioNetTM is the base application purchased by the State of New Jersey. SVRS is New Jersey’s customized version of the system, after all the modifications are made to the application to fulfill the State’s requirements. Often, these two terms are used interchangeably in referring to New Jersey’s new statewide voter registration application.

back to top

What changes will need to be made to existing hardware and software environment in order to run SVRS?

SVRS is a web-based application, and it is accessed via a web browser, like Microsoft Explorer, using an Internet Service Provider. Some counties currently have the ability to access the Internet, but others do not. With the implementation of SVRS, all counties will be set up with Internet access.

Using HAVA funds, the State will purchase equipment and/or upgrade each county’s existing environment as needed. This includes PC’s, printers, scanners and bar-code readers.

Each county will also be getting two servers. One will be a local database server, where the data from the central, statewide server will be replicated in “real-time”, as it is being updated on the central/ statewide server. The second server will be used to run the application locally. In the remote chance that the central server is down, SVRS will switch to the local county servers for the application and database until the central server is operational. In addition, the local application server can be used to run reports.

back to top

What about virus protection? Is it preloaded on all PC workstations and servers?

Yes, the State has purchased Symantec (Norton) AntiVirus, corporate edition. It will be preloaded on all new PC’s and servers. Once the equipment is installed at a county, the county will be responsible for applying the updated virus definition files available from Symantec via their automatic update feature.

back to top

Will the new PC’s have CD burners?

Yes.

back to top

How many scanners or printers will each location get?

Quantities will differ from county to county, and will be based on the work level in each office. After initial surveys and assessments, Covansys will make a recommendation to the State as to the quantity of scanners and printers for a particular county. The State, along with input from the county IT staff, will make the final determination. The final hardware allocation will be posted on this website under “Resource Guide.”

back to top

When will the new hardware arrive?

Prior to the final conversion and rollout of each county, the hardware will arrive, and will be installed by the Covansys team. For the pilot counties, the hardware installations will begin in late August. Specific dates will be forthcoming.

back to top

Who is doing the backups of the Server?

The local county IT staff will be responsible for loading the media (backup tapes) to back up the local county servers, but it will be an automated process. Hands-on training will be provided.

The hosting IT staff will be performing back-ups of the statewide, central servers.

back to top

How much training will be needed to be able to effectively use the SVRS?

A detailed training strategy and schedule is being developed to address the various needs of users. Our base strategy consists of four types of training:

1. Computer Skills Training. This training is geared for users not familiar with Windows-based and/or web-based applications. It will be scheduled in advance of each county’s planned implementation date.
2. Level 2 Training. This training will teach the user how to use all of the functionality of the SVRS system. This training is conducted during the week prior to each county’s “go live” date.
3. Administrator Training. Focused on the administrative functions of the system, such as setting up new users, this class will be targeted to those individuals identified for administrative responsibilities. This training will also be conducted in the week prior to implementation.
4. IT Staff Training. Where needed, both State and local IT staff will receive hands-on training for anything from handling the local server to equipment set-up and maintenance.

What kind of report functions will SVRS provide?

SVRS has an extremely user-friendly and comprehensive report module. A wide range of search criteria and sort options will be available to meet user reporting needs. The State is currently working with Covansys to ensure that a standard list of reports will be available with SVRS. In addition, the State will be providing each county with Crystal Reports software, which can be used to extract data, create and run custom reports at the county level.

back to top

Will each county continue to use their current voter registration system along with the SVRS?

No. Once a county’s data has been converted to SVRS, and they have gone live on the new system, they will not need to maintain their voter list on two separate systems. SVRS will be New Jersey’s system of record and will ensure the State’s compliance with HAVA.

back to top

Once SVRS is implemented in all the counties in New Jersey, what type of on-going support will be provided to the counties? (In other words…. When Covansys goes away, who will be assisting us with our questions and concerns?)

First of all, Covansys does not go away! Part of their contract with the State includes warranty and maintenance & support, through the year 2007, with an option for annual renewal. 24-hour Help Desk support will be provided, with after-hours support accessible via pager. Depending on the severity of the problem being reported, the help desk response time will be immediate or up to 4 hours.

back to top

The following questions are all specifically conversion related. None of these questions has been received from New Jersey users yet, but we anticipate these questions based on our conversion experience thus far in other states. These questions usually come after the first set of exception reports are generated for a county. In New Jersey, this begins to happen for some counties as early as mid-May.

Are all the Voter Registration Records from a county’s existing legacy system contained in the Exception Reports?

No. Only those records identified by the conversion process as possibly being invalid or in error for use in SVRS are contained in the Exception Reports. Also, keep in mind that one voter registration record can generate multiple items on the Exception Reports.

back to top

Why is data identified as being invalid or in an error condition?

First, to put things in perspective, the following is a very brief explanation of the data conversion process:

The conversion process or “engine” is composed of tools, scripts, and programs customized specifically to ensure that the various categories of information needed to satisfy requirements of a HAVA-compliant application such as SVRS meet, at a minimum, the following quality assurance levels:

1. Appropriate legacy files are present and linked to corresponding information.
   Example: Voters must be linked to addresses, etc.
2. Data is present in cases of required fields.
   Example: Voter name must be present.
3. Data meets edit standards pertaining to respective target field.
   Example: Dates must be valid.
4. Data passes validity checks when compared to recognized standards of use.
   Example: Addresses are compared against the USPS database.
5. Data, after being “parsed” is correct.
   Example: If “Mr.” appears in the last name field of a voter record, it is incorrect.

Data not meeting standards of the Conversion Engine or deemed in need of verification will be called to the attention of the county through the Exception Reports for either acceptance “as is” or corrective action on the county legacy system by the user.

(back to top)

Since providing the conversion team with our data, we have done a lot of work to our existing Voter Registration System such as adding new records, purging out-dated information and updating data; have we lost our work?

As long as your work is completed before submission of the third, or “final pull” of data from your existing Voter Registration System to the conversion team, you have not lost your work. In essence, those added voters and updates will be migrated to SVRS while the purged records will be removed from conversion prior to the final load of data to SVRS.

Until formally notified that record entry and purges to your existing Voter Registration System must be discontinued, new records and purges of existing records may be continued as usual…as a matter of fact, it is encouraged. Such “stop” notification will occur at time of “final pull” of data from your existing Voter Registration System, which will happen only days before your county is scheduled to go live on SVRS.

back to top

Some of the last and middle names of voters contain only a single letter; is this allowable?

While a single letter in any of the three name fields (last, first, middle) is acceptable in SVRS, the Conversion Engine identifies these as “suspect”. The Exception Reports will contain first and last names with only one or two letters to allow the election staff the opportunity to verify the name. Our experience has shown that while some of these names are valid (like first name Jo or last name Li), most are not. Middle names are not required by SVRS.

back to top

If a date of birth for a voter is not available, what should be done?

SVRS requires a data of birth for each voter. If a date of birth is not available on the voter registration card, the date of birth may be entered as 1/1/1800. This tells the data viewer that no date of birth is available for this particular voter. This “work-around” should be used sparingly, however, since system performance may be adversely affected. Only use 1/1/1800 where no date of birth can be found.

back to top

There are voters living on 200, 202, and 204 Oak St. however, in the existing Voter Registration System, there are voters living at 201, 203, and 205 N Oak St.; this is the same street. This is showing as two different streets. Why, and is this a problem?

To the Conversion Engine, Oak St. and N Oak St. are two different streets and thus the conversion process creates a street and street segment for both Oak St. and N Oak St. accordingly. Before the final data pull from the existing voter registration system, ensure the Oak St. and N Oak St. records are changed to be uniform for the conversion process. Then, as they are matched against the USPS Database, the Conversion Engine will assign the correct street name, according to the USPS Database.

Keeping with the same example, if you decide to change all the records to Oak St., but the USPS name is N Oak St., then the Conversion Engine will convert the records to N Oak St.

back to top

There are addresses that contain “#” in them… is this allowable?

Number signs “#” in the range of an address are removed so that an address like “ #1 Feigenbusch St.” would be recognized as “ 1 Feigenbusch St.” and treated as a regular street address. Number signs “#” will remain in the rest of the address to maintain the unit number (ex., apartment number) should that information be present.

back to top

What should be done if there is not a regular street address in the current system (it is blank now) and on the voter’s Registration Card is a lengthy description of the street address as depicted below:

Street address on card: 1000 feet North HWY 20 & CR-M TURN RIGHT 2ND HOUSE ON RIGHT

SVRS requires a meaningful residential address for each voter in order to associate relevant districts for that voter based on the address. Instead of leaving the address blank in SVRS, the above address should be modified to reflect the following:

Thousand feet North of HWY 20 & CR-M

(Note that the “1000” from the card addressed is changed to a “word” as opposed to a number so that the conversion routine will not be fooled into thinking it is a house number.)