GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AUTHENTICATION METHOD FOR MOBILE VOTING

• US 20120164982A1
• Filed: 09/01/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Elliot Klein
• Inventors: Klein, Elliot
• Granted Patent: US 8,700,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location

Abstract

A system and method for authenticating votes received from a voter'"'"'s mobile device comprising a computer programmed with a set of computer-readable instructions and a database accessed by mobile device reading a durable computer readable medium stored in a computer server, the database comprising a registered voter and a geographical location for the registered voter'"'"'s postal mail delivery address, means to receive a vote in an election over a wireless carrier network, means to determine the geographical location of a device which transmitted the vote over the wireless network comprising cell tower triangulation, and means to reject the vote if the geographical location of the device which transmitted the vote is not within a predetermined distance from the geographical location for the registered voter stored in the database.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for authenticating a mobile device for electronic voting over the internet comprising

a. storing a geographical location of a voter'"'"'s postal mail delivery address prior to an election, wherein the geographical location comprises longitude and latitude coordinates, in a database stored in a computer server to which an election authority has access;

b. upon receiving from a mobile device at the computer server an internet vote by the voter in the election and the geographical location of the device, determining whether the geographical location of the mobile device is within a predetermined distance from the registered geographical location for the voter by cell tower triangulation geolocation (“

A-GPS”

or “

Assisted-GPS”

); and

c. if the geographical location of the mobile device is not within the predetermined distance from the registered postal address for the voter, rejecting the internet vote.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising cross-referencing the voter'"'"'s registered postal mail delivery address to the longitude and latitude geographical location data coordinates stored in the computer server memory.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining the distance between the geographical location of the device and the voter'"'"'s registered geographical location, wherein if the determined distance is greater than the predetermined distance, sending a message to the mobile device to indicate that the internet vote has not been accepted because the geographical location of the device exceeds the predetermined distance from the voter'"'"'s registered geographical location longitude and latitude coordinates.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a voting software application program accessible over the internet and a Global Positioning System (GPS) data sensing receiver, wherein the device is configured to:

communicate GPS location sensor data with the voting software program application over a first transmission network;

transmitting voting data to a first server, the data comprising location information data coordinates; and

performing a data comparison in a second network server to determine an indication that the location is a GPS data location address acceptable by the voter application program rules and permissions programmed by a voting authority or other voting administrator to process an individual vote from the device that may include rules and permissions as to date(s) and time(s) acceptable for voting.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the postal address can be the same address as a physical election voting or polling location address, identified as location data coordinates, that is identified by a voting authority as an acceptable location under the method to enable a voter to vote using the device while physically located at a voter polling place.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is provided at a physical election polling place by a voting authority that includes one or more of the following elements designed to assist voters with disabilities to process a vote;

a voter software launch application to initiate a voting process on the device;

a tactile keyboard for data entry, an audible data file translation software application to translate a ballot displayed on the device screen into an audible voice data file to audibly read the voter ballot contents displayed to the voter, a corresponding voice recognition data entry software program to capture voice response commands by the voter and then confirm the entry by audible data file translation to enter a vote by the method.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a sample voter ballot or mock election vote process is provided online at a URL accessed web page address for the purpose of permitting a voter with a mobile device to test their device, in advance of an actual vote event, to determine if their device is suitable for processing a vote under the method, and to further permit a voter to enter and complete a sample voting process with the device.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile device comprises a camera function and wherein an image, using the camera function, of a physical authentication image selected from the group consisting of the voter'"'"'s driver'"'"'s license, handwritten signature document, face, passport, and durable computer readable identifier medium is captured and transmitted by the device to an election authority computer server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the handwritten signature document is only one of a durable computer readable identifier in the form of a state issued driver'"'"'s license, national ID card, an election vote absentee ballot, or governmental issued passport that each contain a handwritten signature of the voter.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile device is a consumer mobile cellular telephone device, a Smartphone, or a portable computer tablet device;

wirelessly connected to the internet by WiMAX, Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, LTE, CDMA, or GSM wireless mobile device data carrier transmission technologies.

11. A computer system for authenticating a mobile device for electronic voting over the internet comprising

a. a voter registration module accessed by computer-implemented server configured to store a geographical location of a voter'"'"'s postal mail delivery address prior to an election, wherein the geographical location comprises longitude and latitude coordinates, in a database;

b. an authentication module configured to (1) receive from a mobile device a vote by the voter in the election;

(2) receive from a mobile device carrier cell tower triangulation data identifying the geographical location of the mobile device;

(3) determine whether the geographical location of the mobile device is within a predetermined distance from the registered geographical location for the voter; and

(4) if the geographical location of the mobile device is not within the predetermined distance from the registered postal address for the voter, to reject the internet vote.

12. The computer system of claim 11 further comprising an Application Program Interface (API) data module stored in a mobile device or stored in a remote server accessible over the internet by a mobile device at the request of the voter.

13. The computer system of claim 11 further comprising a SIM card identification module comprising a voting software application download to the SIM card configured to, enable reference data collection, location data validation, and authentication to vote on the device.

14. The computer system of claim 11 further comprising a query module in the SIM card memory, the query module configured to communicate with the mobile device and a remote reference database server storing registered postal address location data for computational data matching to permit the capture and storage of a vote in an election by the computer-implemented server.

15. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the authentication module is configured to compare the radial distance between the geographical location reported by the mobile device and the geographical location of the registered postal address and to reject the vote if the radial distance exceeds a predetermined value.

16. The computer system according to claim 11 adapted to authenticate electronic shareholder proxy voting.

17. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the computer server further includes voter communication content over the internet comprising clickable internet links or video data files related to election vote selection options on mobile device.

18. The computer system according to claim 11 adapted to include sending or receiving voter and polling data to a Mobile Communication Device by SMS or short code message data.

19. The computer system according to claim 11 adopted to include opt-in permission registration for a voter to register a Consumer Device to receive advertising sponsored messages on the mobile device and a computer server system to calculate fees to be charged to a voting authority for sending advertising messages, votes and voter polling replies in response to advertising sponsored messages in a voter election, polling or shareholder meeting.

20. The computer system according to claim 11 adapted to authenticate a voter, prior to making a vote election on the mobile device by a first automated physical location check-in registration process to electronically authenticate and report location of the mobile device in combination with a second check-in registration step that requests a voter'"'"'s password be entered into mobile device or electronically reported by mobile device to the computer system.

21. A computer system for authenticating a mobile device for a transaction over the internet comprising

a. a hardware server configured to register and store in a database geographical location longitude and latitude coordinates of a postal mail delivery address;

b. an authentication module configured to

(1) receive a transaction;

(2) receive carrier cell tower triangulation data, assisted GPS data identifying the current geographical location of the mobile device, or a combination of the triangulation data and Assisted GPS data;

(3) determine whether the current geographical location of the mobile device is within a predetermined distance from the registered geographical location of the postal mail delivery address; and

(4) reject the transaction if the geographical location of the mobile device is not within the predetermined distance from the registered postal address.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a mobile-communication device, cause the mobile-computing device to:

(1) receive a transaction;

(2) receive carrier cell tower triangulation data, Assisted GPS data identifying the current geographical location of the mobile device, or a combination of the triangulation data and GPS data;

(3) determine whether the current geographical location of the mobile device is within a predetermined distance from the registered geographical location of the postal mail delivery address; and

(4) reject the transaction if the geographical location of the mobile device is not within the predetermined distance from the registered postal address.

23. The medium of claim 22, wherein the information sufficient to complete the data transaction comprises a wireless mobile phone number identifier associated with the transaction and with the mobile device.

24. The medium of claim 23, wherein the information sufficient to complete the data transaction comprises location determining data that enables an individual or business to deny the transaction based at least in part on the location distance range coordinate comparison information between two or more latitude and longitude positions.

25. The medium of claim 22, wherein authorizing the transaction is performed automatically by the mobile device without input from a user of the mobile device.

26. The medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-executable instructions are transmitted by internet using WiFi access point identification, connectivity and location reporting data between one or more registered WiFi location points and the mobile device.

27. A system comprising a set of computer-executable instructions stored on computer readable medium of claim 22.