Patent ID: 7427025

Claim:
A method comprising: preparing voting materials with a plurality of unique, bar-coded vote indicia; mailing the voting materials including a ballot paper with the plurality of unique, bar-coded vote indicia for a ballot option to a voter, each vote indicium in the plurality of unique, bar-coded vote indicia being associated with a different choice for the ballot option by the voter; receiving a mailed response to the ballot paper with one vote indicium of the plurality of unique, bar-coded vote indicia for the ballot option affixed to the response; automatically reading the one vote indicium for the ballot option affixed to the response to collect voting information including a vote identification code contained in the vote indicium; determining the vote identification code for the one vote indicium is valid; determining a voter identification number for the voter associated with the one vote indicium and a vote value associated with the one vote indicium from a first secure storage location using the vote identification code of the one vote indicium; storing the vote identification code and the vote value in a new record in a second secure storage location; updating the first secure storage location to indicate that the vote value associated with the one vote indicium for the voter identified by the voter identification number has been used; updating a third secure storage location to indicate that the voter has voted; stopping the storing of new records in the second secure storage location; counting a number of vote values for each different choice for the ballot option in the records stored in the second secure storage location; and providing a total number of vote values for each different choice for the ballot option.