FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2006
Contact: Doug Dunbar
207-626-8404

Secretary of State Dunlap Announces Milestones in the Delivery of Online Services

MONMOUTH , MAINE -- Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has announced a series of milestones in the statewide delivery of online services in Maine. Joined by local officials at a press conference on Tuesday, Secretary Dunlap began by highlighting a state-local partnership that makes Monmouth the 100th municipality to offer Rapid Renewal— Maine’s Online Vehicle Registration Service—to its residents. Dunlap highlighted the 100th community milestone and thanked local officials for joining the Department of the Secretary of State in this effort.

“Monmouth joins a growing list of municipalities in offering a fast, convenient method for renewing vehicle registrations. By providing this service, Monmouth officials will save town residents time, money and effort. Rapid Renewal will also help municipal employees, by freeing up time that can now be directed toward other projects and responsibilities,” Dunlap commented.

Dunlap used the occasion to announce a number of other milestones and record-setting utilization rates for Rapid Renewal, as well as Maine’s Online Driver License Renewal and Duplicate Service:

Monmouth becomes the 100th municipality to Offer Rapid Renewal (www.informe.org/bmv/rapid-renewal/);
This 24 hour service is now available to approximately 60 percent of state’s residents;
Transaction total since service began in 2001 recently surpassed 150,000;
New record set for weekly transactions this month with 1,912 registrations being processed;
Maine’s Online License Renewal and Duplicate Service reaches milestone of more than 5,000 transactions being conducted during each of the first two quarters this year;
License renewal and duplicate transaction volume has increased 300 percent during first 6 months of this year—compared with last year;
New monthly record set for license renewals and duplicates in June, with nearly 2,100 being processed;
New daily record set for license renewals and duplicates earlier in July, with 133 transactions—saving 19 hours of processing time at BMV branches that day, and enabling that time to be used to serve other customers.

Dunlap pointed out that the Department of the Secretary of State now provides more online services than any other agency in state government. In addition to registration and license renewal services, the Department’s website (www.maine.gov/sos) offers many other online applications, including a Vanity Plate Search and Order Service and a Driving Record Service.

“Online delivery of services is changing the way citizens interact with their government. More and more people are becoming aware of the many services being offered by the state, and they’re realizing tremendous savings in time and money—by being able to conduct business from their home or office when it’s convenient for them,” Dunlap added.

Maine.gov is the official Web site of the State of Maine (www.maine.gov) and a service of the Information Resource of Maine (InforME). InforME is a collaborative effort between the State of Maine and New England Interactive, LLC.