Government Technology - December 2008 - (Page DC36)

County and city portals won accolades at the Center for Digital Government’s Best of the Web awards ceremony in Hollywood, Calif. Red Carpet BY ANDY OPSAHL Local Portals on the T wo doors down from the famous tains a bar code — which a county Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Holly- clerk employee scans upon arrival wood, Calif., local governments — that retrieves the information from accepted awards for their portals at the the holding table and sends it to the Center for Digital Government’s Best registration database. The system may dramatically reduce of the Web awards ceremony in September. Although many of the awards the percentage of registration forms the went to portals fulﬁlling the goal of county rejects due to missing data. The ofﬁce now rejects 10 percent of delivering government services online, other portals earned accolades by using all mailed voter registration forms. The Web technology to help citizens better ﬁgure is even higher for residents who communicate with their governments. register to vote through the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV); their Here’s a sampling of the honorees. forms are rejected nearly 50 percent of Salt Lake County Online Voter Registration the time, Garcia said. It’s horrible because the DMV’s System Could be Statewide Model form is not intuitive and people miss Utah is developing online voter registration functionality, and it may use lines they’re supposed to complete, Salt Lake County’s system as a template, Garcia said. Voters registering online, by conaccording to a county ofﬁcial. Salt Lake County is currently the trast, get their forms rejected less than only municipality in Utah that lets resi- 0.5 percent of the time, accorddents submit voter registration forms ing to Garcia. Those rejections online, said Julio Garcia, director of the happen in rare instances when Salt Lake County Employees’ Univer- online registrants don’t sign sity and former director of elections for and mail the printed version of the form. the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Ofﬁce. Citizens complete voter registration forms online, then click “send” The online registration project, to transfer their data to an electronic ﬁrst implemented in 2007, aims to eliminate much of the data entry “holding table.” They also print a copy involved in voter registration. of the form, sign it and mail it to the County Clerk. That printed form con- The online registration tool also saves the clerk’s ofﬁce from entering thousands of registration forms from unafﬁliated voters who want to vote in Republican primaries. The Utah Republican Party lets unafﬁliated voters become Republicans on the day of its primary and vote. Offenders Check in Online With Pretrial Services in Arapahoe County, Colo. Arapahoe County, Colo., reversed plans in May 2008 to hire two additional administrative staffers when the county’s Judicial Services Online Check-In Web tool eliminated the need for them, said Marsha Adams, senior business analyst of Arapahoe County. The Web tool lets unimprisoned or supervised suspects awaiting trial 36 DIGITAL COMMUNITIES DECEMBER 08

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - December 2008

Government Technology - December 2008 Contents Point of View Four Questions for... On the Scene Big Picture Year in Review Who Controls Your Network? Paper Makes a Comeback Halting Meth Abuse Spectrum Up Close signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Becoming a Digital Community Rethinking 700 MHz Smart Grids: Powering the Future Gearing Up for Crime 2.0 Software Predicts Crime Local Portals on the Red Carpet More Than Just a Pretty Face

Government Technology - December 2008

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