Verity Central is a batch-fed digital ballot scanning system used to process paper ballots. It is commonly used in jurisdictions with large quantities of by-mail ballots, and is typically implemented in a centralized elections office, where it is operated by authorized elections staff.

Verity Central consists of proprietary software installed on a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) PC workstation, which is integrated with one or more attached COTS scanners. Compatible scanners are batch-fed, and are often loaded with 250 to 500 ballots at time.

Because Verity Central is a digital ballot processing solution, after scanning ballots and interpreting voter marks, the software can efficiently present images of ballots to human reviewers. This capability is especially important for digital adjudication, which allows authorized election staff to review voter marks whose intent the software was unable to interpret (e.g., write-ins; contests with too many choices marked; marginal marks; etc.). After resolving voter intent, human reviewers can use the software to instruct the voting system how to record voter marks for tabulation, without having to retrieve the original physical ballot. (And if reviewers do want to find a particular scanned ballot, Verity Central has batch information to assist staff in locating it.)

Once all ballots flagged for adjudication have been reviewed,  voter choices on all scanned ballots are written as Cast Vote Records (CVRs) to portable flash memory drives, which are then transferred to a tabulation workstation for counting and reporting results. It is important to note that Verity Central only scans ballots and writes Cast Vote Records; it does not have tabulation capabilities. (And this can actually be helpful in jurisdictions that wish to scan by-mail ballots in advance of Election Day, without releasing results.)

Hart InterCivic Verity Central demonstration video

Another Hart InterCivic Verity Central demonstration video

Hart Intercivic Verity Central usage in November 2024 (click map for details)

Resources

Verity 1.0 Administrators Guide_Build Central Count (2015)
Verity Voting 1.0 Test Report for the State of Colorado (2015)
EAC Certification Test Report for Verity 1.0 (2015)
EAC Certification Test Report for Verity 2.0 (2016)
Report of the Secretary of State of Washington on the Examination of the Verity 1.0 Voting System (2015)
Verity Central Technical Reference Manual