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Helping America Vote

About the Quick Start Guides: The EAC's Quick Start Guides are intended to familiarize local election officials with various topics

they will likely encounter in election administration. The guides are a starting point to identify areas of concern and give officials a

broad idea of factors they should consider in approaching a given topic.

What is a Central Count System?

In a central count system, election officials use a high-speed ballot scanner or several precinct scanners to tabulate Election Day

ballots at a central location. At the polling place, voters cast their ballots by depositing them into secure ballot boxes, which poll

workers transport to the central count location at the close of the polls. This guide will highlight considerations and administrative

practices election officials should consider when implementing a central count optical scan ballot system.

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The decision on central count versus precinct count of ballots may be statutory, but local election officials may have flexibility in the

decision. Deciding whether to change to a central count optical scan ballot system requires careful consideration of a jurisdiction’s

internal and external environments. Election officials must manage the transition to central counting in a way that minimizes the

impact of the change on election processes while preserving the security and integrity of the electoral system. Some key factors to

consider include:

Making the Decision

Voter Intent Determinations: Similar to mail ballots, a voter is not present during the review and tabulation of their ballot. The

use of central count ballot scanners requires officials to develop bipartisan ballot adjudication procedures for ensuring a voter’s

cast ballot counts as they intended (voter’s intent).

Voter Education: Establish voter education programs to provide information about the chain of custody, security of transportation

of ballots from the polling place, and how voters can track and confirm that their ballot counted.

Blank Ballots, Overvotes, and Undervotes: Similar to voter intent determinations, officials must determine how to program

scanners to read ballots that are blank, overvoted, or undervoted.

Staffing: Central count operations require additional staff at the election office. Staff must receive and account for all ballot boxes

containing voted ballots, including documenting the chain of custody as the voted ballots are removed from each box, counted,

and balanced to the signed voter roster; reviewed for voter intent; bundled into batches, scanned, and re-boxed; and sealed for

storage.

Cost: High-speed central ballot scanners are more expensive than precinct-based ballot scanners, but fewer are required.

Polling Place Considerations

Once officials decide to purchase and implement a central count optical scan ballot system, review current polling place processes to

identify areas that will require revision or new policies and procedures. Addressing these needs in advance will help poll workers

effectively manage the system on Election Day. Jurisdictions changing from DREs to optical scan central count will need sufficient

time to revise poll worker manuals, checklists, supplies, and training procedures.

Ballot boxes must be secured to ensure the safety and integrity of the ballots at all times.

Poll workers should inspect the ballot box before the opening of the polls to confirm that the

ballot box is empty and then apply a seal and lock to the box to ensure no tampering occurs

throughout the day.

Ballot boxes must be monitored throughout the day to prevent tampering and guide voters to

deposit their ballots in the box properly.

After the polls close, poll workers will have to open the ballot box, manually count the ballots,

and balance the number of ballots to the voter list.

An audit log containing the ballot count should be placed in or on the ballot box with the ballots

when sealed for transport.

Once all end-of-night processes are complete and election supplies are ready to be transported

back to the election office, procedures must ensure the security and integrity of the ballot boxes

are not compromised at any point in the delivery.

A few important considerations for polling location procedures include:

Transporting Ballots

Incorporate two-person,

preferably bipartisan,

integrity security measures at

all times during the delivery

process. Tracking devices,

such as Airtags or RFDI

chips, can be affixed to ballot

containers to track ballots

during transport to the central

count location. Body

cameras can also be used to

confirm the integrity of the

chain of custody of ballots in

transport. 

November 30, 2021 v. 1.0 EAC | Helping America Vote

eac.gov clearinghouse@eac.gov @EACgov @eacgov1 @us.eac