A batch reading system for automatically reading documents such as tags or tickets having data marked thereon in the form of human readable characters which are also automatically readable by suitable apparatus, the system being capable of feeding documents which are curled, wrinkled, bent, and otherwise deformed or mutilated. The documents are fed from an input hopper by first feed means, which may be a vacuum belt, from which they are fed to a second vacuum belt on whose underside the tags are held and fed past an underlying automatic reading device. The documents which are properly read are each stripped from the overlying vacuum belt by a flipper arm into a discharge chute, while other tickets are fed past the discharge chute to a reject stacker. To accurately laterally position the documents being fed, one of their longitudinal edges is pressed against a reference surface. The documents are fed past the reading head in a direction transverse to the various lines of data recorded on the document, whereby each line of data is presented successively to the reading head. The system is also able to handle and properly feed intermixed documents of various lengths and widths.