BÃ-WE BELL + HOWELL Processes Vote by Mail Envelopes with Parascript's Technology During 2010 Primary Elections

Online, August 12, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Contacts:

Claudette Allingham
Parascript, LLC
303-381-3108
[email protected]

Hilary McCarthy
Zenzi
508-829-2543
[email protected]

Parascript, LLC, the image analysis and pattern recognition technology provider, today announced that its signature verification technology was used during the 2010 primary elections to process incoming Vote by Mail (VBM) envelopes in two counties in California. Between the two counties, over 100,000 envelopes were handled on industry-leading Criterion sorting systems from BÃ-WE BELL + HOWELL (BBH) that utilize Parascript's SignatureXpert software for signature verification. This greatly reduced the manual effort required for processing these envelopes.

The vote-by-mail solution from BBH was first used in 2007 and has been used by BBH clients in every election since 2007, including the 2008 presidential election.

"With Voting by Mail gaining in importance and popularity, comprehensive solutions that provide fast, efficient processing and high levels of integrity are critical. We are pleased to have worked with Parascript to extend our proven sorting technology to meet the needs of the VBM market," said George Varghese, BBH senior product manager. "County officials were able to quickly process ballots while maintaining item-level tracking and performing multiple levels of verification during the election."

Parascript's SignatureXpert leverages artificial intelligence and utilizes the most comprehensive and advanced methods available in the art and science of signature verification.

The VBM sorting system from BBH is built on its sorting technology that has been leading the commercial sorting market for decades. The system efficiently verifies and sorts incoming envelopes in a single pass. Verification includes signature matching, thickness checks (to check for no ballot and for more than one ballot) and envelope barcode identifier validation. Sorting is based on a combination of the verification result, existing challenge codes, if any, and the voting precinct defined by the county. Parascript's signature verificationtechnology was used to perform image cleansing, to locate the signatures on the envelope images and to verify signature authenticity.

"We are very pleased that our technology can be used for diverse applications, especially those with such importance as Vote by Mail," said Kaz Jaszczak, director of product planning and operations for Parascript. "Our universal signature verification technology has already proven invaluable in diverse applications such as detection of forgeries on financial documents. We are delighted that it has played a significant role in this year's election."

About Parascript, LLC

The Parascript image analysis suite extracts meaningful information from images. Employing patented digital image analysis and pattern recognition technologies, the Parascript image analysis suite improves decision quality in medical imaging, postal and payment automation, fraud detection and forms processing operations. Parascript software processes over 100 billion imaged documents per year. Fortune 500 companies, postal operators, major government and financial institutions rely on Parascript products. Organizations include the U.S. Postal Service, Böwe Bell + Howell, CheckFree - now part of Fiserv, Elsag, Lockheed Martin, NCR, Siemens and Unisys.

About BÃ-WE BELL + HOWELL

Headquartered in Wheeling, Ill., BÃ-WE BELL + HOWELL is a leading provider of high-performance document management solutions and services. The company provides a wide breadth of cutting-edge processing and postal solutions that help customers increase productivity, decrease costs and reduce risk. Based in Wheeling, Ill., with operational centers in Durham, N.C., and Bethlehem, Penn., BÃ-WE BELL + HOWELL has more than 70 years of industry experience developing superior equipment and software technologies. These solutions are supported by one of the largest dedicated service organizations in the industry. BBH and Criterion are trademarks or registered trademarks of Böwe Bell + Howell Company.