Mendocino County is taking delivery of the modern, secure Verity® Voting system from election solution provider Hart InterCivic. User-friendly features and excellent customer service led to the choice of Hart’s Verity over a previous vendor’s system.
“Verity is the best fit for our voters’ needs,” said Katrina Bartolomie, Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters. “Our voters like the paper ballot record that Hart provides. If using the ADA device at the polling place, they can print out a real ballot. They like that better than printing out a barcode like the other system,” she added. The County staged demonstrations of the competing election systems, and invited election officials and representatives from several counties.
“Mendocino County is new to the Hart family. We will provide the reliable, trustworthy election experience that they expect and deserve. We are working closely with elections staff to ensure the transition to Verity is smooth and efficient,” said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, a U.S. company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions.
“Verity is the only all-new, proven system certified in California, and forward-looking counties are paying attention. Solano, Yolo and Lake Counties are just a few of the jurisdictions that have recently selected Verity for future elections,” he said. “Mendocino made the right choice.”
With 50,000 registered voters, County officials anticipate saving time and effort on election nights. “Verity will eliminate most of our manual processes. The ease of scanning ballots, plus the speed of on-screen ballot adjudication will make a huge difference for our returns,” said Bartolomie. “We can do 95% on screen.” She also pointed out that Verity will allow the County to replace a roomful of hand-fed optical readers with a pair of efficient scanners. With 83% of ballots returned by mail, that greatly improves workflow and opens up valuable workspace.
Hart pioneered digital ballot scanning, and the company’s decade-plus experience with the technology has strongly influenced Verity’s design. Verity’s hardware and software features make elections secure and transparent. A main component of the U.S.-built system is Verity Central, with a streamlined workflow, logical onscreen adjudication and no ballot pre-sorting required.
Equipment is arriving this week, and voting on the new system may start as soon as November.
“We’re excited to see Verity. We knew other counties were pleased with Hart, and so far, customer service has been great. The staff’s help with follow through and quick answers helped complete the contract process in record time,” said Bartolomie, who has worked with elections since 2004.
“Hart’s work with our CEO office and county counsel staff made the whole process very smooth,” she said.
Additional California counties are considering switching to Verity before the 2020 elections; Braithwaite expects more announcements soon.
Learn more about Verity: https://www.hartintercivic.com/state/california/