The state's plan also includes guidelines for creating and implementing an interim statewide voter-registration database, dubbed NYSVoter I, by July 1. The database will hold a single, centralized repository of voters, each of whom will be assigned a unique identifier.

For verification purposes, the new database will be linked with databases from the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. Social Security Administration and other federal agencies.

New York's plan is to pattern the voter database after one implemented in the state of Washington, which has agreed to share its technical details free of charge. Ultimately, NYSVoter I will serve as the underlying technology for a permanent database system that will be completed in the spring of 2007, according to the plan.

A spokesman from the New York elections board said in an e-mail last week that the board is awaiting a response from the court and the DOJ about the plan; he declined further comment. A DOJ spokesman also declined to comment on the state's plan.