Oakland County, Pontiac, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 - Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson unveiled a state-of-the-art Election Reporting System today that will allow voters a whole new way  to view and use Oakland County's election results on Nov. 4.

"We will still be offering the same up-to-the-minute results as numbers come in on election night, but with a more viewer-friendly system," Johnson told media members at a demonstration of the Election Reporting System Wednesday. "Voters can customize their searches to suit their needs. They can focus on the race or contests they are interested in, use maps and bar graphs to make viewing results easier and even examine data at the precinct level."

Election results, as always, will be posted online at www.oakgov.com - Oakland County's homepage - on election night.

Very high voter turnout is expected and there may be some delays as election results are reported to the county's Elections Division by Oakland County's 51 cities and townships, Johnson warned.  "Local city and township clerks are extremely diligent and hardworking and will make sure every vote is counted," she said.

Oakland County is the first county in Michigan to use this online tool, although counties in North and South Carolina, Illinois, Florida and Texas also use the Election Night Reporting system created by the Tampa, Florida-based SOE Software, Inc.

"S.O.E. Software is proud to welcome the Oakland County Clerk's Office as its first Clarity ENR customer in the state of Michigan," said CEO Marc Fratello. "This progressive selection by the county will provide its web visitors with enhanced insight into all election night results ... (It) empowers every web visitor to search for, locate and download the election night information they are most interested in following."

One of the system's features includes the ability to download electronic "snapshots" of election results in various formats, a feature likely to be used by members of the media and election analysts.

"Oakland County and the state of Michigan have been featured prominently in the national news for this election," Johnson said. "We are sure that many eyes will be watching to see what happens here. This new system makes it so much easier to track election night results once the data is sent in by the local clerks."

The system will go "live" on Friday, Oct. 24 at the Clerk's elections web site at www.oakgov.com/clerkrod. Just click on the Elections Division. No voting results will be displayed, but Oakland County residents or other interested citizens can explore features of the new system. A quick-start user's guide will also be available.