ADVISORY/ Booz Allen Hamilton Experts Available to Comment On Improving the U.S. Voting Process.

Business Editors & Government Writers

ADVISORY...for Monday (Nov. 4)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

Booz Allen Hamilton 

Who:    Ed Rodriguez and Chris Siddall, Booz Allen Hamilton
        consultants and co-authors of "Toward Digital Democracy: A
        Strategist's Plan for Fixing Flawed Elections," published in
        strategy+business magazine

What:   A business strategy for Election Reform

When:   Week of November 4, 2002

Why:    On the eve of the first federal elections since the voting
        chaos in Florida demonstrated a profound need for electoral
        reform, we are still miles away from fulfilling it. Now that,
        nearly two years after the 2000 election debacle, the White
        House has passed legislation to fund election reform, Booz
        Allen Hamilton maintains that the government needs to seek
        lessons from the one sector with experience not just
        theorizing about change, but executing it: the business
        community.

        Ed Rodriguez and Chris Siddall label election reform as "the
        ultimate change-management project" and suggest that election
        managers face challenges similar to those encountered by
        corporate leaders, including quality control, staff
        development, strategic planning, budgeting, and politics.

        They draw on their e-business experience as well as on their
        work with a number of election reform initiatives, including
        projects with the Federal Election Commission and the Defense
        Department's Federal Voting Assistance Program. Turning to the
        electoral system, they recommend:

        --  Treating voters as a "customers" and removing obstacles
            that prevent them from "buying" (i.e., voting);

        --  Approaching the electoral process as a "value chain,"
            harmonizing all the critical functions (e.g.,
            registration, voter education, absentee voting) and
            players (e.g., citizens, technology vendors, etc.);

        --  Molding election agencies into professional institutions,
            driven by a culture of continuous improvement; and

        --  Drawing a technology roadmap to rebuild the electoral
            system that is necessary to sustain "Digital Democracy."

How:    To Schedule an Interview or to Receive a Copy of "Toward
        Digital Democracy," Contact Karen Guterl at 212-551-6516;
        [e-mail].