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Comptroller William C Thompson, Jr., today issued an audit report that found that the New York City Board of Elections has successfully implemented new technology systems to support its election and poll-worker activities.

The S-Elect Project, which provided a framework for the eventual integration of all Board of Elections applications, is comprised of the Candidate Processing and Election Support System (CPESS) and the Poll Worker Requirements Support System (PWRSS).

“It is extremely important that Board of Elections databases function reliably, are accurate, and are secure from unauthorized access,” Thompson said. “My auditors found that the Board successfully handled the 2005 elections using its new technology, and met its overall goals and system requirements for further enhancement.”

Thompson noted that the $4.3 million S-Elect Project continues to evolve and that the Board has begun integrating subsystems into its framework to, for instance, incorporate a candidate financial disclosure system face and interface with proposed electronic voting machines.

The project was conducted in two phases spanning from January 2002 to December 2005. In 2002, the Board contracted with N-Tier Technology to help develop and implement the project. N-Tier has acted as the systems integrator. A second contract was secured with Information Methods to serve as project manager.

Overall, auditors found that S-Elect met its stated business and system requirement goals. In addition to running during 2005 election events, it also has been in use during general and smaller elections, such as the county committee process.

Auditors, however, noted some room for improvement, pointing out that the Board has no formal security policies for S-Elect. Accordingly, Thompson recommended that the Board:

• Develop written policies and procedures for tracking system users and terminating user IDs from long-inactive users and for former employees. The Board should periodically review the status of inactive user accounts and terminate access, when appropriate.

• Ensure that the various duties of the administration of the S-Elect system are segregated and an appropriate back up system is in place in accordance with Department of Investigation (DOI) directives.

• Create an overall disaster recovery plan that includes S-Elect, conduct a comprehensive test of the plan, and schedule annual tests, as required by the DOI directives.

Board officials agreed to adhere to the Comptroller’s recommendations.