San Jacinto County Switches to Hart InterCivic to Improve Election Technology

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Feb 16, 2017, 05:32 ET

COLDSPRING, Texas, Feb. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- San Jacinto County joins the growing group of counties in Texas to leave another election solutions provider to acquire the Verity Voting® system from Hart InterCivic. County officials chose Verity Touch for electronic voting, since San Jacinto is a Vote Center county. In side-by-side comparisons with the other devices on the market, voters, poll workers and county officials overwhelmingly preferred Verity Touch.

Hart's unique controller model brings efficiency to the polling place by allowing officials to manage up to 12 voting terminals from a single console. The Verity Voting system greatly simplifies election administration and makes voting easy and accessible for voters.

Voting systems around the country are aging, and most Texas counties are now considering replacing systems purchased more than a decade ago. By joining the vanguard of new Texas Verity customers, San Jacinto County will enjoy superior equipment, lower operating costs, better customer service, and a business partner born and based in Texas.

"San Jacinto County is a welcome addition to the Hart family as early adopters of Verity. We've served our neighbors throughout Texas for more than 100 years and look forward to sharing that in-depth local experience with our new partner," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic. "Verity offers modern, flexible options that can adapt to changing needs and serve San Jacinto County for years to come."

Vicki Shelly, Elections Administrator for the county, praised the forward-looking support her team received from County Judge John Lovett for approval of the Verity purchase.

"The benefits of Hart's polling place controller model are enormous," Shelly said. "Our poll workers will no longer be required to administer every voting device separately for every election. This will reduce risk, reduce errors, and increase efficiency in getting our election night results."

Shelly adds, "The small size and light weight of the Verity system were other huge factors in our decision. Many of our poll workers are older, and they have difficulty managing the big, heavy equipment we were using. Also, our storage space is limited. It would have been impossible for us to work with the other devices on the market – they are even larger than what we had." She is excited about implementing the new system for the local elections on May 6, 2017, and about San Jacinto County's new partnership with Hart InterCivic.

With Verity, San Jacinto County voters will for the first time enjoy the privacy and independence of entering the voting booth alone and activating their own ballot. They will also be able to adjust the font size and/or contrast on the voting device, and even change the language if they choose, without the need for assistance.

Poll workers will perform all device operations only on the Controller – they will open polls, close polls, and run reports on only one machine in each polling place, rather than having to perform all of these tasks on every device separately as they had to do with the previous system. Elections office staff will only need to program the Controllers, one for each polling place, rather than every single voting device used in the election as they did before, so that their warehouse time and effort will be dramatically reduced. And with so many fewer memory devices to read for tabulation on election night, elections office personnel will have reports ready sooner than in the past.

"Hart already provides election solutions for the majority of Texas voters, with voting systems in 113 counties, and we expect to announce additional Verity commitments in the state within weeks," Braithwaite said.

Learn more about Verity in Texas: http://www.hartintercivic.com/texas4verity.

About Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. The Hart mission fuels passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessible—and makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier.

SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.