Electronic voting system

• US 6,250,548 B1
• Filed: 10/16/1997
• Issued: 06/26/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hart InterCivic Incorporated (H.I.G. Hart, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Hart InterCivic Incorporated (H.I.G. Hart, LLC)
• Inventors: McClure, Neil, Lohry, Kermit
• Primary Examiner(s): Frech, Karl D.
• Application Number:
  US08/953,003
• Time in Patent Office: 1,349 Days
• Field of Search: 235/51, 235/50.R, 235/50.A, 235/50.B, 235/57, 235/386, 705/12
• US Class Current: 235/51
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

An electronic voting system with a headquarters unit, a plurality of precinct units, a plurality of voting stations associated with each precinct unit, and a plurality of mobile memory units (MMUs) to contain data that can be transported back and forth between the headquarters unit and the precinct units. The MMUs include FLASH memory, wherein each memory location can be written to once and read many times. Each memory location can thus only be subsequently written to after all the data in the entire FLASH memory has been erased. The system includes the ability to store images of the cast ballots at multiple locations for verification and authentication. The system includes the ability to store a direct representation of the voter'"'"'s selections as displayed to the voter as a redundant image of the ballot. The system also includes the ability for each voting station to automatically read the particular ballot overlay thereon to verify the proper ballot style is being used. The system also includes the ability to communicate between the various components of the system when the components are in a storage configuration. The various components of the system can be folded from a deployed configuration into the storage configuration so that the largest two-dimensional aspect in the storage configuration is a fraction of that in the deployed configuration. The system also includes a remote sensing terminal and a text-to-speech converter for use by disabled persons. An absentee ballot that can be read by the voting system is also provided as is the ability to vote over a computer network, such as the Internet.

Claims

1. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction, comprising:

a central computer;

a precinct unit, said precinct unit including a network controller;

a mobile memory unit, the mobile memory unit connectable to the central computer to provide data to and receive data from the central computer and connectable to the precinct unit to provide data to and receive data from the network controller, wherein data is stored in the mobile memory unit in nonvolatile memory;

a voting station, said voting station in data communication said precinct unit, said voting station operably configured to permit a voter to cast a ballot; and

wherein the mobile memory unit is transportable between the precinct unit and the central computer to convey data therebetween, said data including representations of a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction.

2. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the mobile memory unit includes flash memory.

3. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the mobile memory unit stores data magnetically.

4. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the ballot styles provided to the precinct unit from the central computer via the mobile memory unit include a plurality of different ballot styles each formatted to present choices upon which a particular class of voter is eligible to vote and the Precinct unit is configured with Program instructions to present authorized voters at the voting station with ballots corresponding to eligibility of authorized voters by voter classification.

5. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the voting station is adapted to send an image of a voter'"'"'s cast ballot to be communicated to the network controller.

6. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, wherein an electronic ballot image of the voters cast ballot is stored at the voting station.

7. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the voting station includes a plurality of display indicators to provide a visible indication to a voter of ballot selections made by the voter, the voting station further including a plurality of sensors providing signals representative of a state of the display indicators, the signals providing a redundant indication to authenticate a ballot cast by the voter, the redundant indication of the cast ballot being stored at the voting station.

8. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 1, including a plurality of voting stations, wherein the plurality of voting stations are connectable to each other with only one of the plurality of voting stations directly connected to the network controller to allow the remaining voting stations to be connected indirectly to the network controller through the interconnection of the voting stations.

9. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 8, wherein the plurality of voting stations are daisy-chained together.

10. The voting system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with a ballot stored on said mobile memory unit includes bar code information.

11. The voting system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with a ballot stored on said mobile memory unit includes a machine readable code.

12. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction, comprising:

a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters;

a plurality of mobile memory units, each mobile memory unit containing information representative of a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction; and

a plurality of voting stations communicating with the central computer, each voting station including one of said plurality of mobile memory units, the voting stations each including a base with a plurality of voting switches, a plurality of display indicators, and a plurality of sensors, the voting switches providing an indication to the central computer of the ballot cast by the voter, the display indicators providing a visible indication to the voter of the ballot selections made by the voter, the sensors providing signals representative of the state of the display indicators, the signals providing a redundant indication to authenticate the ballot cast by the voter.

13. The voting system of claim 12, including a ballot overlay for each of said plurality of voting stations, each ballot overlay including identifying information associated with at least one ballot.

14. The voting system of claim 13, wherein said identifying information associated with at least one ballot includes bar code information.

15. The voting system of claim 13, wherein each ballot overlay is associated with at least one ballot represented by said information contained on a mobile memory unit.

16. The voting system of claim 12, wherein each said mobile memory unit includes a memory device.

17. The voting system of claim 16, wherein said memory device stores data magnetically.

18. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction, comprising:

a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters;

a plurality of mobile memory units, each mobile memory unit containing information representative of a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction; and

a plurality of voting stations communicating with the central computer, the voting stations each including a base with voting switches, the base being receptive of a ballot overlay, the ballot overlay including text or other symbology providing information to the voter relating to the various races and issues to be decided in the election, the ballot overlay further including a coded region thereon with a code representative of a ballot style encoded on the ballot overlay, the base including a code reader proximate to the coded region of the ballot overlay when the ballot overlay is placed in position on the base, the code reader being operational to read the code encoded in the coded region of the ballot overlay and to supply the code to the voting station for configuring the voting system for the ballot style indicated by the code.

19. The voting system of claim 18, wherein said code representative of a ballot style includes bar code information.

20. The voting system of claim 18, wherein each of said plurality of mobile memory units stores information magnetically.

21. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction having an operational configuration and a storage configuration, comprising:

a plurality of precinct units, each precinct unit including a network controller; and

a plurality of voting stations, each voting station being in data communication with one of the plurality of precinct units when said voting system is in the operational configuration, and each voting station being capable of being placed in data communication with one of the precinct units to communicate data while said voting system is in the storage configuration.

22. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 21, wherein each voting station includes an external connector for connection to the network controller that is accessible when the voting station is in the storage configuration.

23. The voting system of claim 21, including a ballot overlay for each of said plurality of voting stations, wherein each ballot overlay includes coding associated with one of said plurality of ballot styles.

24. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction, comprising:

a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters;

a voting station, said voting station including a mobile memory unit containing information representative of a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction; and

said voting station being capable of eventually communicating data to the central computer and -having a deployed configuration in which the voting station can receive selections from voters and a storage configuration in which the voting station folds to a fraction of the largest two-dimensional aspect of the voting station in the deployed configuration when placed in the storage configuration.

25. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 24, wherein each voting station includes both a voting tablet that can communicate data and a privacy enclosure that at least partially encloses the voting tablet and the voter using the voting tablet.

26. An electronic voting system as defined in claim 25, wherein each of the voting tablet and the privacy enclosure have a deployed and a storage configuration, and each fold to a fraction of the largest two-dimensional aspect of the voting station in the deployed configuration when placed in the storage configuration.

27. The voting system of claim 24, wherein said voting station includes a ballot overlay and said ballot overlay includes coded information associated with one of said plurality of ballot styles.

28. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction, comprising:

a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters; and

a voting station, said voting station including a mobile memory unit containing information representative of a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction;

said voting station being adapted to communicate data to the central computer, said voting station also having a remote sensing terminal to receive inputs from disabled persons.

29. An electronic voting system for use in facilitating an election within a jurisdiction, comprising:

a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters;

a mobile memory unit containing information representative of a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction; and

a voting station adapted for communication with said central computer, said voting station having means for providing an audio output to voters who may be unable to read a ballot.

30. A method for conducting an election, at least in part over a computer network including a central election computer and a plurality of remote computers accessible by a voter, the other computers being connected to the election computer through the network, the method comprising:

providing a central election computer with a plurality of ballot styles for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction;

receiving identifying information at said central election computer from a voter and authenticating the voter'"'"'s identity;

verifying the voter'"'"'s eligibility to vote in the election and verifying that the voter has not yet voted in the election;

serving a voter-specific ballot style to a remote computer accessed by the voter, said voter-specific ballot style being one of said plurality of ballot styles and said remote computer being in communication with said central election computer; and

receiving information from the voter indicative of the voter'"'"'s selections in the election.

31. In an electronic voting system having a network and a controller, the improvement comprising providing the controller with multiple ballot styles for selected transmission to a plurality of voting stations according to voter eligibility at each of said voting stations, said ballot styles being configured for selected use according to precinct voting requirements across a plurality of precincts within the jurisdiction.