Leon County Supervisor of Elections Overhauls Its Manual Document Processes, Saving Money for Taxpayers

The Solution

The 2021 election year was a turning point for Leon County. Major initiative petitions and an influx of third-party organizations turning in Florida voter registration applications flooded the office. Existing full-time staff relied on additional temporary hires to assist with petition and voter registration application processing, which was immensely time-consuming due to the need to scan, number, and process them. Over the next year, as more initiative petitions were circulated, Cory Logan and Christopher Moore of Leon County decided that a better way was needed.

Leon County staff reached out to OPEX, initially investing in the Model 72™ RED™ (Rapid Extraction Desk), for high-speed mail opening and extraction. Following the success of the Model 72 opener, Leon County implemented an OPEX Falcon^®+ RED scanner in 2023 to address several challenges across these various workflows. The Falcon+ RED scanner is a combination of a Falcon+ scanner and a Model 72 RED, which can seamlessly integrate with one another to combine envelope opening, extraction, and advanced document scanning.

Initiative Petition Processing
The Falcon+ RED significantly streamlined petition processing by consolidating multiple steps into a single seamless operation. Before automating, this process required 12 people who could only focus on handling petitions. This process now only needs three people. As petitions are scanned, the system automatically numbers them, reads barcodes containing petition type and circulator information, and organizes documents by circulator number in the software. The new system also helps catch any petitions with mistakes or that don’t belong when presenting documents to the state for audits, helping to identify possible fraud.

Document Retention
For its massive backfile of voter registration forms, the Falcon+ RED has proven invaluable to Leon County. Legislative changes in Florida now allow digital versions to replace physical records, allowing for more space once documents are captured. The scanner’s versatility is crucial for this application, as it can handle various document types used throughout the early 1900s to the present day, including thin film-like materials and card stock, which cannot run smoothly through conventional scanners.

Returned Mail Processing
Before the Falcon+ RED solution, four to five staff members were required to manually open returned mail, which consisted of voter correspondence. This process now requires one person. This integration also improves accuracy and security. With previous tools, the contents were sometimes damaged during opening, creating additional work. Once correspondence is scanned, staff no longer needs to handle physical copies and process the information after it is uploaded to OPEX CertainScan® software. The county mailed approximately 45,000 pieces, receiving a 50% return, which were all processed using the OPEX solution.

Vote-by-Mail
Leon County was the first elections office to invest in the Falcon+ scanning solution, utilizing the system for processing voter applications. The Model 72 part of the solution is used for opening returned mail-in ballot envelopes, helping protect ballots from damage during opening with milling cutting that removes a minimal portion of the envelope.