Patent ID: 7021539

Claim:
A method for casting and tallying votes as indicated on a printed ballot having visibly printed candidate choices and a defined marking area corresponding to each of said candidate choices, each said defined marking area, but no other areas of said ballot, having thereon a first chemical, which upon application of developer chemical produces a visible mark, and at least one certain one of said defined marking areas comprising two physically separate areas, the first separate area being small relative to the second, and the second being adapted to accept a hand-written entry, a visible mark representing said hand-written entry being possible only by manual application of said developer chemical in said separate area, comprising the steps of, manually applying to selected ones of said defined marking areas said developer chemical, which upon contact with said first chemical produces a visible mark within said selected marking areas, optically scanning said ballot to detect and tally all visible marks in all of the defined marking areas on the ballot, and upon detecting a mark in said first separate area of said one certain marking area, separating said ballot for analysis and tallying in accordance with the hand-written entry if one has been made visible by said developer chemical in the second separate area of said one certain marking area.