accessIndiana

For Immediate Release:	Contact: Heather Sewell
January 3, 2003	(317) 232-6584

Indianapolis, IN - In his first full day in office, Secretary of State Todd Rokita is drafting a personal letter of solicitation to all eleven Congressional Officials urging their support of funding for election reform in Indiana. In conjunction with his election reform efforts, Rokita will participate in the National Association of Secretaries of States (NASS) Federal Election Reform Legislation Training to be held in Denver, Colorado this weekend. This training session will assist in a detailed understanding of H.R. 3295, the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

The federal legislative agenda complements many of the election reforms Rokita has already planned and will work to complement like the following: 1) Statewide voter files updated, 2) State of the art voter machines, and 3) Consistent assurance to all voters of the right to a complete ballot cast.

NASS is working on a coordinated effort with other state and local organizations, as well as the civil rights community and the disability community, to push hard for full funding of election reform. The legislation authorized over $2 billion in funds to the states for 2002 and 2003. Rokita sees it as imperative that the granted funding gets to the state of Indiana for the progression of election reform to continue.

"As promised in my "Rokita Roadmap," I am working to ensure implementation of a more accurate means of verifying the person casting a ballot is eligible to do so and that the ballot is correctly counted after it is cast," stated Rokita.

For upcoming information on election reform, visit the Secretary of State's website, www.sos.IN.gov.