Sunday, Feb. 19, 2006 | 12:34 p.m.
CARSON CITY - Secretary of State Dean Heller's $4.6 million plan to meet a federal deadline for a new voter registration system has failed.
In January 2005, Heller hired Covansys Inc. of Farmington Hills, Mich., to build a statewide computer registration system to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in time for the 2006 election.
The company, paid $1.2 million so far, missed every deadline. And a weeklong demonstration scheduled last week to convince county clerks and voter registrars that the system would be ready was cut short.
Heller suspended the contract with Covansys last week. The system was supposed to be ready to install Jan. 1. But Heller said, "It will take another six to eight weeks to make the necessary changes."
"We don't have six to eight weeks," Heller said. "There are too many design changes that the clerks wanted."
Nevada is one of about a dozen states that have failed to meet the federal deadline of Jan. 1 this year in having a statewide computer registration system that contains the name of every voter, according to electionline.org, a non-partisan, non-advocacy Web site that provides information on the progress of election reform.
The 2002 federal voter act required states to have the new statewide system in place by January 2004. More than 40 states failed to meet the deadline and received a waiver until January this year. But electionline.org says nearly a dozen states, including Nevada, missed the second deadline.
Heller said Covansys would continue working on the system but won't get paid. After the election, he said his office would get back with Covansys to continue work.
"The clerks are starting to like this. They think it is moving in the right direction," Heller said. "Covansys put a lot of money, time and employees into this."
Renee Parker, Heller's chief deputy secretary of state, said a decision will be made later whether to continue with Covansys or to pursue litigation.
Larry Lomax, voter registrar of Clark County, said "It was a good idea to terminate early. It was not ready." Covansys "had two months to prepare for this demonstration and we didn't see a single module that didn't have problems."
Carson City Clerk Alan Glover said the system could not have been put into effect before the election, given its present problems. "Even if this is the greatest thing since sliced bread we couldn't transition" from the present system.
Counties are now responsible for registering voters. Under the proposed system, there would be a statewide system to allow comparisons against Social Security numbers and records of the state Department of Motor Vehicles. It would be able to determine if a person registered in one county, moved to another county and registered.
The company in its ads promises "to help you secure a fully HAVA (Help America Vote Act) compliant system in operation statewide well before the 2006 deadline."
Michelle Jones, vice president for marketing for Covansys, could not be reached for comment on the suspension of the state contract.
Parker said the secretary of state's office has been working since December on a backup system in case Covansys couldn't produce. She said counties will send their registration information once a day to a state computer.
Cy Ryan can be reached at (775) 687 5032.
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