Unisyn Voting Solutions Open Elect Voting Central Scan is a high-speed digital ballot scanning system used to process paper ballots. It is commonly used to scan absentee by-mail ballots, and is typically implemented in a centralized elections office, where it is operated by authorized elections staff.

OVCS consists of proprietary software installed on a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) PC workstation, which is integrated with an attached, batch-fed COTS scanner.

While scanning ballots and interpreting voter marks, the OVCS software can identify also ballots that the system believes require additional attention (e.g., no selections; write-ins; too many or too few choices marked), and OVCS will stop the attached scanner to allow elections staff to remove the ballot for further review, as necessary. After “valid” ballots have been scanned, and all “invalid” ballots resolved, the OVCS software can write Cast Vote Records for the batches scanned, and tabulate results.

Unisyn OpenElect system demonstration from Cerro Gordo County IA

Unisyn OpenElect vendor demonstration Lebanon County PA

Unisyn Voting Solutions OpenElect OVCS usage in November 2020 (click for details)

Resources

Verity Voting 1.0 Test Report for the State of Colorado (2015)
Report of the Secretary of State of Washington on the Examination of the Verity 1.0 Voting System (2015)
EAC Certification Test Report for Verity 1.0 (2015)
EAC Certification Test Report for Verity 2.0 (2016)
EAC Certification Test Report for Verity 2.2 (2016)