US3648022A — Method for tabulating election returns

Claim 1

Independent Claim 235 words

A method of processing voting data from a plurality of ballot formats in elections of the type wherein less than all the vote choices in the election appear on any one ballot format comprising the steps of: a. assigning to the vote choices on different ones of said ballot formats an identifying indicia to be common to all vote choices of like significance in the election and capable of being distinguished from the identifying indicia of all vote choices of different significance; b. placing appropriate ones of the vote choices on various different ballot formats presented to the voters at the precint voting locations; c. prior to an election, preparing a first machine acceptable record containing the identifying indicia correlated with the physical location of the vote choice for each of said different ballot formats; d. after an election, preparing a second machine acceptable record containing the vote cast for the vote choice correlated with the physical location of the vote choice on each of said different ballot formats; e. combining said first and second records in a first data processing machine at a central processing station for each of said ballot formats to associate said identifying indicia and the corresponding vote on a further record acceptable for machine data processing; and f. utilizing said further record in a second data processing machine in a processing step to produce totals for each distinct vote choice.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 235 words

A method of processing voting data from a plurality of ballot formats in elections of the type wherein less than all the vote choices in the election appear on any one ballot format comprising the steps of: a. assigning to the vote choices on different ones of said ballot formats an identifying indicia to be common to all vote choices of like significance in the election and capable of being distinguished from the identifying indicia of all vote choices of different significance; b. placing appropriate ones of the vote choices on various different ballot formats presented to the voters at the precint voting locations; c. prior to an election, preparing a first machine acceptable record containing the identifying indicia correlated with the physical location of the vote choice for each of said different ballot formats; d. after an election, preparing a second machine acceptable record containing the vote cast for the vote choice correlated with the physical location of the vote choice on each of said different ballot formats; e. combining said first and second records in a first data processing machine at a central processing station for each of said ballot formats to associate said identifying indicia and the corresponding vote on a further record acceptable for machine data processing; and f. utilizing said further record in a second data processing machine in a processing step to produce totals for each distinct vote choice.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 44 words

The method as defined in claim 1 comprising the further step of printing total votes processed to date during the processing operation wherein the vote cast for each choice is correlated with the identifying indicia for each choice to produce an unofficial return sheet.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 44 words

The method as defined in claim 1 comprising the further step of printing the total vote cast after said further record has been completed to produce an official return showing the total vote for each choice together with the identifying indicia for each choice.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 25 words

The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the first and second records for a plurality of voting locations are combined at a central station.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 20 words

The method as defined in claim 4 wherein said second record is prepared from a voting machine printed return sheet.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 25 words

The method as defined in claim 4 wherein said second record is prepared by data procesSing equipment counting individual ballots to produce a precinct summary.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 61 words

The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the further record produced from the combining of the first and second records contains said identifying indicia and vote cast for each ballot format in a form free of error that results from checking to detect both omission of vote totals from any precinct and duplicate entry of vote totals from any precinct.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 77 words

The method as defined in claim 7 wherein said further record contains all the information from one precinct in a unitary block of high-density information free of noninformation containing areas for carrying vote total information concerning vote choices absent from the ballot format from that precinct, the information for various precincts is entered in a random sequence, and thereafter said further record is processed in said second data processing machine to produce a summary printed return sheet.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 80 words

The method as defined in claim 1 wherein said first record is a ''''code'''' card prepared prior to the election, said second record is a ''''count'''' card prepared after the election, and said further record is a magnetic tape having the identifying indicia and the associated vote in error-free form from a ballot format located geographically together in a unitary block of high-density information free of areas for carrying vote total information concerning vote choices absent from that ballot format.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 35 words

The method as defined in claim 9 further comprising entering said unitary blocks of high-density information on said further record only after checking to determine all needed information for the ballot format involved is present.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 75 words

The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising the steps of producing at the precinct a physical record containing the votes cast at that precinct; transporting said physical record to a central data processing center; and utilizing said physical record to produce a machine acceptable record which constitutes said second record as specified in step (d) of claim 1 randomly in substantially the order said physical records are received at the central processing center.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 147 words

The method as defined in claim 11 wherein the first record as specified in step (c) of claim 1 comprises a deck of ''''code'''' cards for each precinct physical record with each card bearing precinct identification data; the second record as specified in step (d) of claim 1 constitutes a deck of ''''count'''' cards with each card bearing precinct identification data: and the further record specified in step (e) of claim 1 contains that vote total from each ''''count'''' card of a precinct and the identifying indicia from the corresponding ''''code'''' card of said precinct in a unitary block of high-density information free of areas for carrying vote total information concerning vote choices absent from the ballot format of that precinct; and the method further comprises entering the blocks of information on said further record only after checking to determine all information for the precinct is present.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1975-03-07	1975-09-06	1976-03-07	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	1979-03-07	1979-09-06	1980-03-07	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	1983-03-07	1983-09-06	1984-03-07	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Method for tabulating election returns

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