This figure includes Hart's latest contracted customers in Texas: Lubbock County (Lubbock), Denton County (Denton), Montgomery County (Conroe), Nueces County (Corpus Christi), Fort Bend County (Richmond), McLennan County (Waco), Taylor County (Abilene), Gaines County (Seminole), Ector County (Odessa), Duval County (San Diego), Medina County (Hondo), Uvalde County (Uvalde), Hale County (Plainview), Burnet County (Burnet), Harrison County (Marshall), Reagan County (Big Lake), Dawson County (Lamesa) and Kenedy County (Sarita). Hart has also been selected as the vendor of choice by many additional Texas counties for voting system purchases with implementations commencing early next year.
Hart's current Texas customers include Harris County (Houston), Texas' largest county, our nation's third largest county and the largest U.S. county to date that has fully implemented an electronic voting system; Travis County (Austin), Tarrant County (Fort Worth), Brazos (Bryan/College Station), Hays (San Marcos) and the City of Terrell.
"We are very pleased with our selection of Hart InterCivic to supply our voting equipment," said Dorothy Kennedy, Election Administrator for Lubbock County. "Hart has an excellent reputation regarding service and support after the sale. Hart InterCivic seems to have the complete package the Lubbock County Selection Committee was looking for in terms of accessibility, accuracy, security, customer service and support."
"Accuracy and accessibility were major factors in our selection of the eSlate which made Hart an easy choice for us," said Kristi Allyn, Election Administrator in Taylor County. "The eSlate comes highly recommended by other counties in Texas who are currently using the system, so we're looking forward to completing our implementation of the voting system."
"Fort Bend County chose Hart InterCivic's voting system due to its proven track record in accuracy, security and total performance," said Steve Raborn, Election Administrator for Fort Bend County. "As a neighboring county to Harris County, we were able to observe firsthand how smoothly the eSlate System was rolled out to Harris voters and we intend to have the same success here in Fort Bend."
"Our company's roots have been in Texas since 1912, and in spite of our national focus and success over the past decade in the government technology arena, we have always remained committed to meeting the needs of our customers here in our home state of Texas where the majority of our employees live and work," said Britt Kauffman, president and CEO of Hart InterCivic. "We are very pleased to be working with all of these Texas customers and helping them to upgrade their voting technology and become compliant with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA)."
With Hart's committed voting system implementations, over 50 percent of Texas' registered voters(a) are expected to be eligible to cast their ballots on Hart's voting systems in 2006, which is very significant for the company.
Hart is also working with IBM to install Hart's statewide voter registration and election management system -- eRegistry -- for the Texas Secretary of State's Office. This statewide database is planned to be fully operational with voter registration, election management and jury selection functionality in 2006 to meet the voter registration system requirements of HAVA.
