Direct vote recording system

• US 6,550,675 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2001
• Issued: 04/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Diversified Dynamics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Diversified Dynamics, Inc.
• Inventors: Davis, Thomas G., Rabinowitz, Irving L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Michael G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Seung Ho
• Application Number:
  US09/797,185
• Publication Number:
  US 20010035455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 235/50, 235/50.R, 235/50.A, 235/50.B, 235/50.F, 235/382.05, 235/386
• US Class Current: 235/386
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

A Direct Vote Recording System (DVRS) (10) has three primary components, Personal Computer (PC) (100) which runs an Election Management System (EMS), Direct Vote Recording Machine (DVRM) (300) and a Smart Card Activator Device (SCAD) (500). In addition, the DVRS includes Data Carriers (800), Voter Smart Cards (710) and Polling Office smart cards (720). The DVRS generally operates as follows: (1) data of a new election is created using the EMS software on the PC (100), (2) downloading that data to Ballot/Tally Data Carriers (800) which are then transported to Polling Place(s) where (3) the data is then loaded into the SCAD (500) and DVRM(s) (300), (4) hardware tests may then be conducted on the DVRS equipment and Test Voting may be performed to validate operational DVRS software and the accuracy of the downloaded election data, (5) the election is then conducted using the SCAD to generate Voter Smart Cards (710) for Test, Practice and Active voting, and the DVRM to collect votes, (6) polls are closed, the data is downloaded from the DVRM(s) (300) to the Data Carrier (800), and, (7) the Carrier (800) is returned to the PC where election results are computed and reports made. Test and Practice voting may only be conducted prior to opening the polls. The Polling Officer smart card (720) is used by a Polling Officer to control operation of the SCAD (500) and DVRMs (300) at the Polling Place.

Claims

1. A voting system for an election to be voted on by voters at a voting location, the voting system comprising:

an election management computer unit which creates election data relating to the election, said election data including one or more ballots and an election ID;

a polling officer smart card configured by said election management computer unit to include the election ID and a polling officer password for use by a polling officer;

a smart card activator device for reading the election ID and polling officer password from said polling officer smart card, for receiving a password input by the polling officer, and for determining that the password input by the polling officer matches the polling officer password read from said polling officer smart card, a successful match enabling said smart card activator device to receive the election data from said election management computer unit and to verify that the election ID from the polling office smart card matches the election ID received from the election management computer unit, the smart card activator device once enabled by a positive verification for configuring a voter smart card in view of said election data to enable a voter to vote on the election; and

at least one voting machine for reading the election ID and polling officer password from said polling officer smart card, determining whether a password entered by the polling officer matches the password read from the polling officer smart card, a successful match enabling said voting machine to receive an election ID from said election management computer unit and to verify that the election ID from the polling officer smart card matches the election ID received from the election management computer unit, said voting machine, upon election ID verification, receiving at least one of the ballots of the election data from said election management computer unit and, upon reading and verifying the configured voter smart card, the voting machine displaying at least one of the ballots of the election data and permitting the voter to vote on the displayed ballot.

2. The system of claim 1, the voting machine further tallying votes selected by voters.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a plurality of data carriers for receiving and storing election data from said election management computer unit for transfer to said smart card activator device and said voting machine, and for receiving the tallied votes from said voting machine, the election management computer unit reading the tallied votes from each of the data carriers to provide a cumulative tallied vote.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the election management computer unit compares the number of data carriers that received election data with the number of data carriers from which tallied votes are read to determine whether data carriers are missing.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein each data carrier is assigned a data carrier ID and the election management computer unit compares the data carrier ID of the data carrier being read for tallied votes with the data carrier ID from any previously read data carrier so that tallied votes are not read more than once for the same data carrier.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the voting machine transfers the tallied vote to the election management computer unit which generates a tallied vote.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of voting machines.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the election management computer unit is located at the voting location.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of election management computer units, wherein at least one election management computer unit is located at a master jurisdiction and at least another election management computer unit is located at a local jurisdiction.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said voting machine has a counter that is incremented when the voter casts a vote.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said smart card activator device shuts down after a predetermined period of inactivity.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said smart card activator device configures a practice smart card with a practice ballot, said voting machine displaying the practice ballot and enabling the voter to vote only on the displayed practice ballot.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the voting machine retains vote data formed by votes cast by voters, the voting machine preventing new election data from being received until a safe period defined by the election management computer unit and downloaded to the voting machine has expired.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said voting machine has flash memory and retains vote data formed by votes cast by voters in said flash memory.

15. The system of claim 1, said voting machine preventing voters from voting on the election after the election has ended.

16. The system of claim 1, said voting machine tallying votes only after the election has ended.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein, upon completion of voting by the voter, said configured voter smart card is reconfigurable by said smart card activator device for use by a next voter.

18. A voting system for an election having one or more ballots to be voted on by voters at a voting location managed by a polling officer, the voting system comprising:

an election management computer unit which creates election data in response to operator input, said election data including ballot data for each ballot, an election ID identifying the election, a voting location ID identifying the voting location, and a polling officer password;

at least one portable data carrier which receives the election data, election ID, voting location ID and polling officer password from said election management computer unit;

a polling officer smart card for use by the polling officer, the polling officer smart card configured by said election management computer unit to include the election ID, voting location ID and polling officer password;

a voter smart card for use by the voter;

a smart card activator device for reading the election ID, voting location ID and polling officer password from the polling officer smart card, reading the election ID and voting location ID from the portable data carrier, determining whether a password input to the smart card activator device by the polling officer matches the polling officer password read from the polling officer smart card, verifying that the election ID and voting location ID read from said data carrier respectively match the election ID and voting location ID read from said polling officer smart card, and downloading the election data from said data carrier, said smart card activator device further programming said voter smart card to enable the voter to vote on one or more ballots; and

,

a voting machine for reading the election ID and voting location ID from said data carrier, reading the election ID, voting location ID and polling officer password from said polling officer smart card, determining whether a password input to the voting machine by the polling officer matches the polling officer password read from the polling officer smart card, verifying the election ID and voting location ID read from the data carrier respectively match the election ID and voting location ID read from said polling officer smart card, and downloading the ballot data from said data carrier, the voting machine further reading the programmed voter smart card, displaying the enabled one or more ballot and permitting the voter to vote on the displayed ballot.

19. The system of claim 18, said voting machine further generating a voting location password and transferring the voting location password to the portable data carrier, said smart card activator device reading the voting location password from the data carrier and programming the voting location password to the voter smart card, said voting machine verifying the voter smart card by comparing the voting location password read from the voter smart card to the voting location password generated by the voting machine.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein, upon completion of voting by the voter, said configured voter smart card is reconfigurable by said smart card activator device for use by a next voter.

21. A method of creating and managing an election having one or more ballots including an election management computer unit, a data carrier, a polling officer smart card, a voter smart card, a smart card activator device and at least one voting machine, the method comprising:

creating, at the election management computer unit, election data relating to the election, the election data including ballot data for each ballot, an election ID, a voting location ID and a polling officer password;

storing the election data on the data carrier;

configuring the polling officer smart card to include the election ID, voting location ID and polling officer password;

reading, at the smart card activator device, the election ID, voting location ID and polling officer password from the polling officer smart card;

receiving, at the smart card activator device, a password by a polling officer;

determining whether the password input by the polling officer matches the polling officer password from the polling officer smart card;

reading, at the smart card activator device, election data stored on the data carrier;

verifying that the election ID and voting location ID read from the data carrier matches the election ID and voting location ID read from the polling officer smart card;

downloading, at the smart card activator device, election data from said data carrier;

configuring, at the smart card activator device, a voter smart card using said election data to enable the voter to vote on the election;

reading, at the voting machine, the election ID and voting location ID stored on the data carrier;

reading, at the voting machine, the configured voter smart card; and

permitting, at the voting machine, a voter to vote on the displayed ballot in response to reading the configured voter smart card.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of tallying, at the voting machine, votes selected by voters.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of transferring the tallied votes to the data carrier.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising receiving, at the election management computer unit, tallied votes from a plurality of data carriers and tallying the received tallied votes to form a cumulative tally.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of preventing, at the voting machine, voters from voting on the election after the election has ended.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of tallying, at the voting machine, votes only after the election has ended.

27. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of reconfiguring, by said smart card activator device, said configured voter smart card for use by a next voter.