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State auditors to review Virginia elections agency after IT troubles
By GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch
State auditors will review the Virginia Department of Elections after a series of technical problems that have raised questions about the reliability of the software that powers the state’s voter system.
Last month, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission approved a resolution instructing its staff to conduct an in-depth review of the elections agency, which hasn’t been fully studied in almost 20 years.
During that span, the agency implemented VERIS, the information system that local elections officials say has been spotty and slow. The IT problems have mostly meant headaches for the registrars who use the system.
For the most part, they haven’t disrupted the election process, but a surge of would-be voters trying to register for the presidential election caused the registration website to crash right before the registration deadline. That failure prompted a federal judge to order the reopening of the state’s voter registration period to accommodate those who had been locked out.
State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Rockingham, said he requested the JLARC review as a way to find out whether the VERIS system can be fixed with additional funding or if it is “fundamentally broken.”
“We’re all about free, open and fair elections,” Obenshain said in an interview. “But we’ve got to have a system that works in order for those goals to be carried out.”
In his budget proposal this year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe allotted an additional $3.9 million to upgrade VERIS and replace expiring federal funds. At one point, the Senate’s Republican-controlled budget committee had stripped the money out, but most of the funding made its way into the approved budget. . . .
State auditors will review the Virginia Department of Elections after a series of technical problems that have raised questions about the reliability of the software that powers the state’s voter system.
Last month, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission approved a resolution instructing its staff to conduct an in-depth review of the elections agency, which hasn’t been fully studied in almost 20 years.
During that span, the agency implemented VERIS, the information system that local elections officials say has been spotty and slow. The IT problems have mostly meant headaches for the registrars who use the system.
For the most part, they haven’t disrupted the election process, but a surge of would-be voters trying to register for the presidential election caused the registration website to crash right before the registration deadline. That failure prompted a federal judge to order the reopening of the state’s voter registration period to accommodate those who had been locked out.
State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Rockingham, said he requested the JLARC review as a way to find out whether the VERIS system can be fixed with additional funding or if it is “fundamentally broken.”
“We’re all about free, open and fair elections,” Obenshain said in an interview. “But we’ve got to have a system that works in order for those goals to be carried out.”
In his budget proposal this year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe allotted an additional $3.9 million to upgrade VERIS and replace expiring federal funds. At one point, the Senate’s Republican-controlled budget committee had stripped the money out, but most of the funding made its way into the approved budget. . . .
http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/state-auditors-to-review-virginia-elections-agency-after-it-troubles/article_d1af6f9a-0dd1-554b-93ca-a08677ed0b5b.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
