Patent ID: 7055742
Filing Date: 2006-06-06
Classification: G07C

Abstract:
1. A method of collecting an on-line vote from a voter on-line at a networked computing device of said on-line voter, the method comprising: receiving at an activation service remote from but networked to the computing device of the voter and from a voting application on the computing device of the voter a challenge including collected challenge data identifying the voter and verifying the identity of the voter at the voting application; verifying and validating at the remote activation service the challenge and challenge data therein at least in part to ensure that the identified voter in the challenge data in fact provided the challenge data, and is in fact allowed to vote; sending a response from the remote activation service to the voting application, the response including a vote identification value identifying the voter as being activated; storing by the remote activation service the vote identification value and an identification of the voter in a database remote from the computing device of the voter; sending a ballot from a vote gathering service remote from but networked to the computing device of the voter and to the voting application, the ballot including at least one contest for the voter to vote on, the voting application presenting the ballot to the voter and gathering voting information from the voter based thereon; receiving at the remote vote gathering service from the voting application a vote package with the vote identification value and the gathered voting information; verifying and validating at the remote vote gathering service the vote package and vote identification value therein at least in part to ensure that the vote identification value matches the vote identification value from the database; noting by the remote vote gathering service in the database that the vote identification value from the vote package has been employed; and tallying by the remote vote gathering service the voting information from the vote package, the remote activation service and the remote vote gathering service not having control of the computing device of the on-line voter but verifying and validating the challenge and the vote package to impart trust to the computing device and the voting application thereon.