John M. Pellegrino Director
County of San Diego Department of Purchasing and Contracting
TELEPHONE (858) 505-6367 FAX (858) 715-6452
5560 Overland Avenue, Suite 270, San Diego, California 92123-1204
MAY 29, 2013 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI 6026) FOR ELECTION SERVICES SOLUTION The County of San Diego, is soliciting responses from Election industry vendors regarding their interest and capabilities in providing the County of San Diego with an Information Technology solution to provide election related services which include 1) Election Equipment/Assets Tracking, 2) Election Call Center/Issue Tracking, 3) An Interactive Poll Worker Information and Training Website and 4) Electronic Ballot Delivery Services. These solutions will be used by the Registrar of Voters (ROV) to aid management decisions during elections and improve services provided to poll workers and voters. This request for information will not result in an award of any contracts. If the County of San Diego determines that it is in the best interest of the County, a formal competitive solicitation may be issued at a later date. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or any promise to issue an RFP. This RFI in no manner obligates the County to pursue any contractual relationship with an entity that responds to this RFI. The County further reserves the right to cancel this RFI at any time if deemed to be in the best interest of the County.
Jaclyn B. Smith for JOHN M. PELLEGRINO, Director Department of Purchasing and Contracting JMP:JBS
COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO ELECTION SERVICES SOLUTION REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) 6026
May 29, 2013
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1. Purpose and Intent
The purpose of this RFI is to solicit responses from Election industry vendors regarding their interest and capabilities in providing the County of San Diego with an Information Technology solution to provide election related services which include 1) Election Equipment/Assets Tracking, 2) Election Call Center/Issue Tracking, 3) An Interactive Poll Worker Information and Training Website and 4) Electronic Ballot Delivery Services. These solutions will be used by the Registrar of Voters (ROV) to aid management decisions during elections and improve services provided to poll workers and voters. It is expected that the solutions will comprise of several modules and parts including software, hardware, training, installation, support, maintenance and licensing. While the County will require that a contract must be awarded to one vendor, the County will allow the vendor to utilize partners so that the best solution is presented. The County may elect to implement any selected solution in phases or in a single project. The RFI is asking questions related to the anticipated Request for Proposal (RFP). Responses to this RFI will not result in the award of a contract. However, the responses received for this RFI may influence the County’s decision regarding procurement strategy and may influence scope and schedule of the solicitation. If your organization is qualified for, and interested in providing services, please answer the questions in Section 5 and submit your responses to the County of San Diego, ROV. Responses must be received no later than 4:00 PM local time on June 21, 2013. Please note: This RFI is neither a Request for Proposal (RFP) nor a Request for Bid (RFB). It is intended for gathering information only. Request for Information (RFI) The RFI solicits information from, and communications with, organizations, individual companies or strategic teams who may be interested in providing an election services solution for the County of San Diego. A response to this RFI is not mandatory for any vendor that desires to participate in the next step. Request for Statement of Qualifications (RFSQ)/ Request for Proposals (RFP) Information received by the County as a result of this RFI will be used to assist the County in the preparation and issuance of an RFSQ/RFP. The intent of the RFSQ is to solicit key information from potential vendors, and then utilize this information to determine which vendors are most qualified to receive, and respond to, the County’s RFP. The RFP will contain the instructions, background, process, and requirements for proposals from qualified vendors. Vendor proposals will serve as the basis for the County’s evaluation and selection process, along with other activities (e.g., presentations, reference checks, site visits) determined to be appropriate by the County.
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2. Process and Responses 2.1 Electronic Copy of the RFI
The RFI is posted and can be downloaded from the County’s Web site at http://buynet.sdcounty.ca.gov. If you are unable to download this document, you may contact Contract Clerical Support at (858) 505‐6526 and a hard copy will be mailed to you. The County recommends that all potential vendors register for future procurement opportunities and announcements via the County’s Purchasing and Contracting Internet site (“Buynet”). 2.2 Requests for Clarifications and Questions: Vendors requiring clarification of the intent or content of this RFI, or on procedural matters regarding the process, may request clarification by submitting questions, clearly marked “Questions Relating to “RFI 6026”, prior to 4:00 pm on June 7, 2013. Written questions can be communicated by via email to the assigned Contracting Officer, Jaclyn Smith at
[email protected] with a copy to the Project Manager, Rich Grudman (
[email protected]). Each question should include a reference to the Request for Information, by section and page number, and be sequenced in the order of the RFI. 2.3 County’s Response to Clarifying Questions The County will post responses to questions received prior to the deadline on Buynet on or about June 14, 2013. 2.4 Discussions with the County The County will be available to conduct interactive discussions with interested vendors. All face‐ to‐face discussions will be conducted at County facilities. Potential discussion topics include, but are not limited to, demonstrations of the vendor’s solution, the County’s current Election environment, anticipated needs, and objectives. Given the limited amount of time and County resources, these discussions will be scheduled on a first‐come, first‐served basis. The County reserves the right to limit the amount of time available for discussion. Vendors interested in conducting discussions with the County should submit a request to the County Project Manager. Prior to discussions with the County, the vendor should carefully examine the entire RFI and related reference materials. 2.5 Official Contacts 2.5.1 The Point‐of‐Contact for scheduling time and arranging visit, demonstrations and diligence discussions with the County is: Rich Grudman Telephone: 858‐505‐6357 Cellular: 619‐694‐7013 E‐Mail:
[email protected] 2.5.2 RFI responses and all questions or comments about this RFI, or the solicitation process shall be directed to the Contracting Officer identified below. In addition a copy
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of the questions or comments shall be provided to the Project Manager at the address listed below: Contracting Officer ‐ Point of Contact: Jaclyn Smith County of San Diego Department of Purchasing and Contracting Email:
[email protected] Project Manager ‐ Point of Contact: Rich Grudman, Project Manager County of San Diego 5560 Overland Ave, Suite 270 San Diego, CA 92123‐1294 Email:
[email protected] (858)505‐6357 3. RFI GUIDELINES 3.1 Submittal Vendor responses to this RFI are due to the County of San Diego on or before 4:00p.m. on June 21, 2013. Responses shall be addressed and delivered to: Project Manager ‐ Point of Contact: Rich Grudman, Project Manager County of San Diego 5560 Overland Ave, Suite 270 San Diego, CA 92123‐1294 Email:
[email protected] (858)505‐6357 The preferred method of delivery is email. 3.2 Late Responses: Responses will NOT be accepted after the Response due date and time identified in this RFI. 3.3 Respondent’s Costs The County is not responsible for any expenses incurred by any respondent related to preparing a response to this RFI. The County shall be held harmless and free from any and all liability, claims, or expenses whatsoever incurred by, or on behalf of any person or organization responding to this RFI. 3.4 Protests Since this RFI is not a Request for Proposals, and the County makes no commitments, protests are not relevant, and will not be entertained.
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3.5 Treatment of Proprietary Information and RFI responses: Any information contained in any response to this Request for Information (RFI) that the vendor believes is proprietary must be clearly designated as such in writing. Responses declaring the entire RFI response proprietary will not be accepted. If, after opening all responses to this RFI, a request is made to view any response to this RFI, the County of San Diego will comply with that request pursuant to the State of California Public Records Act. To the extent any information contained in a response to this RFI is properly marked as proprietary; such information will not be made available to the requestor until the affected vendor has been given an opportunity to provide an appropriate response. The vendor should clearly identify in writing any materials, which constitute valuable formulae, designs, drawings, or research data or any materials otherwise claimed to be confidential trade secrets, along with a citation to the applicable statutory provisions supporting such a claim for confidentiality. Failure to label materials as such, or failure to respond within ten days of notice of a request for access to materials submitted pursuant to this RFI, may be deemed a waiver by the vendor of any claim that such materials are confidential. The County of San Diego’s sole responsibility shall be limited to maintaining the above data in a secure area and to notifying any vendor of any request(s) for disclosure as soon as practicable from date of receipt of any such request. 4. BACKGROUND 4.1 Overview The County of San Diego Registrar of Voters (ROV) is entrusted with providing a means for all eligible citizens of San Diego County to exercise their right to vote in Local, State and Federal elections. These election services solutions will be used by the ROV to improve efficiencies and aid management decisions during elections. The expected benefit is to improve services provided to poll workers and voters. 4.2 Asset Tracking Elections present considerable logistical challenges to ROV staff. Among these are distributing supplies and election assets to precincts. Election asset management is a far more complex task than standard asset management. In addition to minor assets (i.e. pens, power cords, Post‐Its and parking signs), Election asset management includes moving major/key equipment which can be both sensitive and serialized (i.e. voting machines and booths, scanners and security seals). The current method for handling equipment/asset logistics is manual and extremely labor‐ intensive. The ROV uses multiple excel spreadsheets to pull together disparate information from several data sources in order to track activities and supplies. Quality assurance is conducted through manual crosschecking. At a high level, the ROV seeks an IT solution that can streamline the tracking process, minimize errors, remove duplicative manual efforts and easily provide necessary information in real time. The solution must also have the ability to do extensive reporting, audit logging and also provide chain of custody history for each election asset. Finally, the solution must have the ability to integrate with other Election IT systems including, but not limited to, those modules being proposed in this RFI.
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4.3 Election Call Center / Issue Tracking The ROV currently has several call centers that provide help desk support during Election and non‐election periods. Call centers operate in the following areas: Poll Worker Hotline, Election Observers, Voters, Recruitment/Personnel (for Poll Workers) and Maps/Polls. The Poll Worker Hotline call center primarily deals with answering poll worker questions and resolving problems on Election Day. (Approximately 5000 calls/election.) The Election Observer call center primarily handles calls from observers concerned with electioneering or improper proceedings at a poll sites on Election Day. The Voters call center primarily works with the general public to ensure that voters have the information they need to vote including registration and ballot materials. (Approximately 75,000 calls for a major election.) The Poll Worker Ask‐A‐Trainer and Class Scheduling call center primarily assists volunteers with class scheduling and with questions related to Election Day procedures and processes. The Maps/Polls call center primarily takes calls from voters with questions about their poll site, directions to their poll site or election related maps. Although the various call centers deal with different subjects and are operational for different periods of time, they all have similar business needs and processes. The ROV recognizes that opportunities exist to enhance efficiencies and provide faster, better customer service. Common Call Center Business Issues: Incident management is tracked manually and is labor intensive. o Various paper issue/call slips and excel spreadsheets are used to pull together disparate information from several data sources. There is no comprehensive overarching real time analysis of incidents for management. Thus: o It is difficult to tell how many issues are open at a given time. o It is difficult to time how quickly issues are getting resolved. o It is difficult to track patterns about incidents. For example…incidents may all be coming from a similar geographic area, or be about a similar topic. o If a person calls twice about the same issue, the incident is often treated separately as it is difficult to track who called and about what. • Many callers know which call center is the appropriate one to call but many do not. Often operators are transferring callers around. • Most call center operators are temporary workers and rely extensively on supervisors for help. • Some of the call centers use computers/software to assist in resolving issues some do not. • Trouble shooters in the field on Election Day have no way to update the call center that an incident was resolved other than calling back. At a high level, the ROV seeks an IT solution that can utilize workflow to manage and streamline issue tracking, route incident tickets to multiple platforms, minimize errors, remove duplicative manual efforts and easily provide extensive configurable reporting in real time. The solution
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must be highly intuitive and easy for operators to use. It must also have the ability to integrate with other Election IT systems including, but not limited to, those modules being proposed in this RFI. 4.4 Interactive Poll Worker Information and Training Website A significant part of managing elections is managing the recruitment, training and information of volunteer Poll Workers. Today ROV staff handles poll worker information mostly by speaking with them on the phone and by mail. A significant number of phone calls are tied to poll worker training. Currently over 50% of poll workers call to reschedule their training class when they receive their initial appointment notice. Another challenge with managing poll worker information is that every time a change is made, a physical mailing is sent to a poll worker. For example poll workers receive, “Will You serve?” letters, poll worker newsletters, appointment packets, Precinct Inspector/ Board Designation letters, Surveys and Election day feedback forms, to name a few. This methodology means that a lot of paper is mailed. At a high level, the ROV seeks an internet web portal that can be used as a central information center for Poll Workers. The vision is that communication and interaction with Poll Workers would be handled through this website portal including Poll Worker profile management, scheduling of live in‐person training classes, notifications, on‐line education/training videos, on‐ line interactive training, best practices, share ideas/suggestions, mapping tools, information related to preparing for Election Day and frequently asked questions. The benefits of this solution would be an increase in service provided to Poll Workers. This would be achieved by providing faster, better and more information, improving notifications and decreasing the amount of time it takes to schedule in‐person training classes. Additionally this solution should help the ROV by reducing the number of calls to staff, reducing the amount of paper mailed to Poll Workers and allowing for more efficient and effective management of poll worker information. The solution must be highly intuitive and easy for the public to use. It must also have the ability to integrate with other Election IT systems including, but not limited to, those modules being proposed in the RFI. 4.5 Electronic Ballot Delivery Service The ROV is required by California Elections Code, The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act to provide electronic delivery of ballots to overseas active military, their family members, and U.S. citizens residing outside the United States. These laws provide the legal basis for mail ballot voting requirements for military and overseas voters. A summary of the MOVE Act requirements include: States must make voter registration and mail ballot applications available electronically, as well as General Election information. MOVE also requires that states make a Federal Write‐In Absentee Ballot (FWAB), available online for when official ballots don’t arrive in time. All overseas and military voters do not need to re‐register every election cycle. California counties must plan, for a 46‐day window for the ballot "round‐trip".
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The requirement for “Electronic delivery” means that blank ballots and other required election information can be provided via email, fax or online methodology. However, completed ballots must be returned by regular US mail or fax. There are approximately 12,000 San Diego voters that this affects; today about 60% of those voters request electronic delivery. The remaining 40% request election information and ballots via standard US mail. Currently the ROV is providing electronic delivery to UOCAVA voters via email, specifically via Microsoft Outlook macros that were built by ROV staff. While this method complies with the MOVE Act, it also presents some challenges and is not as efficient or effective as is technologically possible. Challenges include: 1. Email Delivery/Notification ‐ There is no easy way for the ROV to tell if an email was delivered. Today ROV staff needs to manually look for “Undeliverable” messages. Additionally, there is little that ROV staff can do to get corrected information. The only notification ROV receives is a completed/returned ballot. 2. Timeliness ‐ The closer it gets to Election Day, the more people register for electronic delivery. The current email methodology is run manually by ROV staff adding necessary time to the workflow. The ROV staff currently dispatch the ballots via a combination of mailed envelopes, separate faxes, and individual emails. At a high level, the ROV seeks a solution that can expedite the delivery of ballots to UOCAVA voters and improve efficiency/reduce manual involvement for ROV staff all while ensuring that the information is delivered in a highly secure manner. It must also have the ability to integrate with other Election IT systems and send/receive data in real time. 5. REQUIRED VENDOR RESPONSE Documented below are the questions requested to be addressed by each vendor in response to this RFI. All vendors are strongly encouraged to provide all the information requested below in order to afford the County the most comprehensive set of information. Confidential information provided in the RFI responses and diligence discussions will be protected from disclosure in accordance with section 3.5 above. 1. What is the year and state (or country if not USA) of incorporation of your firm? a. Year: b. State: 2. Provide a high‐level description of your client base for similar systems and services you have provided. o Number and location of customers: o Size of the Counties or agencies you have provided services to: o Typical design, development and implementation costs (total dollars) and timeframe (total project lifecycle):
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3. What is the length of your firm’s experience with solutions for: o o o o
Election Equipment Asset Tracking Election Call Center / Issue Tracking Interactive Poll Worker Training website Electronic Ballot Delivery
4. Does your firm offer solutions to all four areas above? If no, do you partner or subcontract with other firms to provide solutions? Please explain your partner’s experience for the solution that they will provide. 5. Will your firm customize your product offering to meet County of San Diego requirements? 6. Provide two or more examples for similar solutions. Scope of the project (dollars and timeframe) Dates of the project activity Name of client point of contact: Address: Telephone: e‐mail: Describe your experience integrating your solutions with DIMSNET. Describe your solution security protocols (data, servers, network, other) used to ensure information is protected. Describe how your firm provides customer support? a. 24 hour? b. Live? c. Phone /email? d. Response time? Describe how your firm provides training to new customers? Identify how your solutions comply with Federal and/or State requirements such as the following: a. Help America Vote Act (HAVA) b. Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) The County hosts its software in a data center operated by HP Enterprise Services, LLC. Would you anticipate offering an alternative hosting option? a. If you were to offer an alternative hosting option, what liability limitations, if any, would you anticipate including in the hosting agreement? What are common risks and challenges your firm has encountered with similar projects? o o o o o o
7. 8.
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10. 11.
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14. What can the County do to reduce risk to implementation (both technology and operational)? 15. Are there specific technology considerations the County should be aware of? 16. Is there specific information the County can provide in the RFSQ/RFP to facilitate accurate scoping and pricing of a potential solution? 17. What are likely partnerships with subcontractors your firm may consider in responding to the RFSQ/RFP? 18. How likely is it that your firm would respond to the RFSQ/RFP? 19. The County plans to schedule demonstrations and discussions once responses to the RFI are received. Please confirm your company’s availability for demonstrations and discussions beginning in July. 6. RESPONSE FORMAT Vendor must include a completed cover sheet signed by an authorized representative. The cover sheet must include the following requirements: o Identify the submitting vendor; o Describe the submitting vendor’s role. Are you the Manufacturer, Distributer, Agent, etc.; o Identify the names, titles, and telephone numbers of persons to be contacted for clarifications; o Explicitly indicate acceptance of the requirements in this RFI; and, o Acknowledge receipt of any and all Addenda to this RFI. Vendor responses should include specific answers to the questions contained in this RFI. Additional information requested (e.g., company financial statement(s), client references, supporting documentation etc.), can be included in marked appendices and attached to the vendor’s response package. Vendor responses should be presented in a format that corresponds to, and references, the sections outlined in this RFI and must include a statement of the RFI question followed by the vendor response and should be presented in the same order as documented in this RFI. Please prepare and submit your response using Microsoft Office or Adobe. To facilitate a timely and comprehensive analysis of all responses submitted, responses should be submitted using the format requested in this RFI. Supplemental materials may be provided, but for the purposes of this RFI, supplemental information should be directed specifically at addressing the issues contained in this RFI.
