VOTE CASTING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20180114391A1
• Filed: 10/24/2016
• Published: 04/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John L. Seibel, Koumoutseas, Nicholas
• Original Assignee: John L. Seibel, Koumoutseas, Nicholas
• Inventors: Seibel, John L., Koumoutseas, Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 10,002,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1417 2D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

A voting system if is provided that results in more efficient voting and more time for voter'"'"'s to consider and make voting selections. Voter'"'"'s use an interactive device to obtain a ballot and to make vote selections on the ballot. A machine readable vote selection code is generated and output to a paper or a display device. The machine readable vote selection code is read at a polling location to fill in a ballot on a voting machine, and output a human readable ballot. The voter verified the votes match the voter'"'"'s intent, and the voted ballot/receipt is accepted.

Claims

1. A system for voting comprising:

an interactive device adapted to receive voter information, and to retrieve a ballot based on said voter information, the ballot comprising a plurality of votable positions or questions, each votable position or question having two or more selection possibilities, and to display said ballot on a display of said interactive device;

said interactive device further comprising a user interface adapted to receive input from a user to select a set of selections from said selection possibilities;

the user interface further comprising an interface element to submit said set of selections;

the interactive device adapted to generate a machine readable vote selection code based on said set of selections when said set of selections is submitted by a user;

the interactive device further adapted to output the generated vote selection code; and

a voting machine adapted to receive said generated code, to decode said generated vote selection code, and to retrieve the set of selections based on said decoded vote selection code;

the voting machine further comprising a display adapted to display said set of selections in a votable ballot, and a user interface adapted to permit the user to modify the selections and to cast the ballot.

2. The system for voting of claim 1, wherein the machine readable vote selection code is a two dimensional code.

3. The system of voting of claim 1, wherein the machine readable vote selection code is a QR code.

4. The system for voting of claim 1, further comprising a printer for printing the generated machine readable vote selection code onto paper.

5. The system for voting of claim 1, wherein said interactive device comprises a display and the machine readable vote selection code is output to the display.

6. The system for voting of claim 1, wherein said voting machine is further adapted to print a human readable voting receipt indicating the voter'"'"'s selections.

7. The system for voting of claim 6, wherein the voting receipt further comprises a unique number and a receipt code representing the voter'"'"'s selections.

8. The system for voting of claim 1, wherein the vote selection code comprises data representing vote selections.

9. The system for voting of claim 1, wherein the vote selection code comprises a reference to a remotely stored data element that comprises the vote selections.

10. A voting device comprising:

a user interface adapted to receive voter information, and to retrieve a ballot based on said voter information, the ballot comprising a plurality of votable positions or questions, each votable position or question having two or more selection possibilities, and to display said ballot on a display of said voting device;

said user interface adapted to receive input from a user to select a set of selections from said selection possibilities;

the user interface further comprising an interface element to submit said set of selections;

the voting device adapted to generate a machine readable code based on said set of selections when said set of selections is submitted by a user;

the voting device further adapted to output the generated code.

11. The voting device of claim 10, wherein the machine readable code is a two dimensional code.

12. The voting device of claim 10, wherein the machine readable code is a QR code.

13. The voting device of claim 10, further comprising a communication interface for transmitting the machine readable code and the data contained therein to a computer and to a printer for printing the machine readable code to paper as a human readable ballot.

14. The voting device of claim 10, further comprising a display, wherein the machine readable code is output to the display showing the data stored in such code.

15. A method of voting comprising the steps of:

receiving voter information via a user interface of a voting device;

retrieving ballot style information based on the received voter information, the ballot style comprising a set of positions and/or questions, each having one or more selection options;

generating a ballot based on the retrieved ballot style;

receiving a set of user selections related to the positions and/or questions on the generated ballot;

generating a machine readable vote selection code based on said received set of user selections;

outputting said machine readable vote selection code.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the outputting step comprises displaying the machine readable vote selection code on a display of the voting device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the outputting step comprises transmitting the machine readable vote selection code to a printer to be printed on paper.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the generated machine readable vote selection code is a two dimensional code.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the generated machines readable vote selection code is a QR code.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising displaying the machine readable vote selection code to a vote casting machine in a polling location.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising reading and decoding the machine readable vote selection code, and

generating a filled-in ballot on the vote casting machine based on the decoded vote selection code and outputting the filled in ballot to paper.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the vote selection code comprises data representing the voter'"'"'s selection.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the vote selection code comprises a reference to a remotely stored data element comprising the voter'"'"'s selections.