For the first time in a gubernatorial election, poll workers will be able to compare photographs, signatures and fingerprints on the voter rolls to those on the voters' own identification cards.

"Is this like comparing fingerprints?"

But what has made identification of the remaining six so difficult is that the usual methods - comparing fingerprints, medical records and dental X-rays - is virtually impossible.

About 70 percent of the market last year went to traditional systems used to compare fingerprints to vast, centralized databases of criminals' fingerprints.

This means a scan can confirm a person's identity in seconds, whereas comparing fingerprints with those in a centralized database can take days.

Comparator, which has a system to compare fingerprints and use them for identification, has been around for years.

We compared fingerprints we found with the ones on Delgado's possessions in the apartment, and the match was perfect.

Mr. Schonbrun said he was told that the department had recently begun taking better photographs of convicts and training its officers to compare fingerprints.

Last year, this Parliament was consulted twice about the establishment of a system for comparing fingerprints.

Subsequently, the introduction of a common European system for comparing fingerprints should be considered.