Overload of Paper Work Delays Results of Reincorporation Bid

The tumultuous past three weeks on Wall Street continue to have repercussions.

With the fate of its planned reincorporation in Delaware hanging in the balance, Scan-Tron Corp. decided Wednesday to adjourn its annual shareholders meeting until Nov. 18 to allow overworked brokerages extra time to compile proxy votes.

Scan-Tron officials said a preliminary tally of proxies had the company 137,000 votes short of the simple majority of the 4.3 million shares outstanding needed to approve the reincorporation.

But many brokerage houses are reportedly running behind in their back-office work--the clerical work that keeps the market running--because their staffs have been swamped with piles of paper generated in the last three weeks of furious trading activity.

John Saunders, Scan-Tron president, said voting is running almost 10 to 1 in favor of reincorporation. He said one brokerage house alone has two-thirds of the votes still needed to approve the measure but has not included them in its proxy because of its back-office overload.

Saunders predicted that the company will be “in fine shape” on the reincorporation measure.

Scan-Tron, based in Tustin, makes optical mark reading equipment and scannable forms for educational, commercial and health-care markets and government agencies. The company was recently named one of Forbes magazine’s best-performing small companies.