Macon Times

Georgia Secretary of State issued the following announcement on Jan. 19.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is continuing to secure Georgia’s elections by launching a new, secure, voter registration system for the Peach State. Raffensperger is partnering with Salesforce to build the new system on the highest security servers with faster processing power and the most up-to-date secure technology. MTX Group Inc. (MTX) is the implementation partner for the new voter registration system.

This effort is the result of a modernization initiative led by Raffensperger that began in 2021, focusing on implementing modern, scalable, resilient, and secure technology. Raffensperger’s efforts have helped ensure a secure, accurate, and verifiable voting system in the state of Georgia.

“Since day one, I have taken action to secure the vote in Georgia,” Raffensperger said. “This partnership with Salesforce and MTX Group will help ensure Georgia’s voting system is secure, reliable, efficient for years to come.”

“MTX’s human-centric expertise in registration solutions to drive this critical investment enables outcomes for people in a wide range of government and private sector ecosystems,” said MTX Founder and CEO Das Nobel. “The collaboration with county and local elections offices across the state of Georgia is focused on giving them an optimized experience that improves access, ensures trust, and preserves integrity throughout the engagement process.”

Secretary Raffensperger’s launch of a new voter registration system is the latest step to secure the vote in Georgia, the number one election system in the country for election security as ranked by the Heritage Foundation. As one of his first acts as Secretary of State, Raffensperger introduced Georgia’s first secure, auditable, paper-ballot election system in almost 20 years and banned ballot harvesting. In August 2020, before the passage of Georgia’s new election law, Raffensperger introduced voter ID to absentee ballots voting by creating an online absentee ballot request portal that verified voter identities by using driver ‘s license numbers. Raffensperger ensured in-person voting continued safely throughout the pandemic by working with the Georgia Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to election workers.

Raffensperger will be working with Salesforce and implementation partner MTX Group to replace Georgia’s current voter registration system, ElectioNet. The changes are entirely on the administrative side. Georgia voters will not see any difference in their voting experience.

The new system, called the Georgia Registered Voter Information System (GaRVIS), will sit on secure, Salesforce servers using cloud technology services authorized by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) at the highest level of security. FedRAMP was introduced in 2011 and ensures standards of security for the use of cloud services across the federal government. FedRAMP ensures that private sector partners are using top-tier secure technology for any cloud storage services provided to the federal government.

Salesforce has a long track record of working with high-level, secure government partners such as the Department of Defense. The security used for the cloud for Georgia’s new voter registration system will be at the same level as Salesforce’s most sensitive government clients.

MTX Group, a premier global technology consulting firm, is the implementation partner for the new voter registration system and is developing the user interface that Georgia’s elections officials will use as part of the new system. MTX’s work sits on top of the Salesforce system and will provide an agile and adaptable experience for county election officials. State, county, and local government users will be able to work in the system with greater confidence and reliability.

County and local elections officials around the state have already been introduced to the new system and will be trained on it in the coming weeks and months.

Following training, the new system will be launched statewide. County and local elections offices will still be able to use the old system while implementing and learning to use the new one.

Original source can be found here.