A three-decades-old voter registration system will meet its end this month, as state voting officials prepare to bring online a new apparatus they say will speed information transfer and reduce the possibility of fraud.
The $12 million replacement, both mandated and funded by the federal government, would allow for quick communication and data-gathering from other state agencies, like the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Virginia State Police, according to Jean Jensen, secretary of the State Board of Elections.
Hence, they’ll know more easily when a person is ineligible to vote because he’s a felon, or when someone is using the ID of a dead person, for example.
“On the new system, it’ll be done as close to real time as you can get,” Jensen said. “So there will be immediate matches if the person who’s applied is not qualified to register to vote.”
Following the most recent midterm elections, the state elections board has a small window of opportunity to switch before the polls open again. The old system will be mostly taken down Dec. 27, and the new system is slated to come online Feb. 1. In that time, there are two local elections that will make use of the old hardware, Jensen said.
Deputy Fairfax County Registrar Greg Scott said the new system can create “matches” with statewide data that can more easily identify voters.
“If we have someone who registers to vote and they flip two numbers of their Social Security number, the system we have now says they are two different people,” he said.
The change is mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
