Patent ID: 6550675
Filing Date: 2003-04-22
Classification: G07C

Abstract:
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.