FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015
Contact: Kristen Schulze Muszynski
o: 626-8404/ c: 441-7638

Maine?s Rapid Renewal service nominated for national Excellence award

AUGUSTA ? Rapid Renewal, Maine?s online vehicle registration renewal service, is a finalist in the 2015 Excellence.Gov Awards.

The Rapid Renewal service, administered through the Department of the Secretary of State, was chosen as one of seven finalists for the ?Intergovernmental Collaboration? award category. The winner will be announced at an awards gala on Monday, Nov. 9, at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.  

Rapid Renewal allows residents of participating municipalities to renew their vehicle or trailer registration online, including the collection of excise tax, and distributes the payments to the appropriate parties.

?Rapid Renewal is a real customer convenience,? said Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, as it allows people to conduct their registration transaction ?without taking time off work or away from your family, from the comfort of your own home.?

Since it was launched in 2000 with 10 municipalities, the service has grown to include 208 municipalities and has seen more than 1,187,330 transactions processed to date. Maine Information Network, a subsidiary of NIC, Inc., is the state?s e-government portal provider and worked in partnership with the Department of the Secretary of State to develop the online service.

The service is cross-jurisdictional, involving the participating municipalities, the Department of the Secretary of State and four third-party software vendors, making it an ideal candidate to win the Intergovernmental Collaboration award.

The Excellence.Gov Awards are offered by the American Council for Technology - Industry Advisory Council, a non-profit, public-private partnership dedicated to improving government through the application of information technology.