Patent ID: 7617978

Claim:
An integrated ballot assembly comprising: a backing assembly including, a planar support card; a machine-readable ballot card that is formed coplanar with the planar support card, the machine-readable ballot card having a plurality of voting columns that are arranged from right to left in a sequence of successively leftward voting columns and that each contain a plurality of markable voting response locations; and a first perforated line that foldably and releasably connects the machine-readable ballot card to a right edge of the planar support card; a ballot book comprising a plurality of voting information sheets that are arranged from top to bottom in a stack of successively lower voting information sheets, each voting information sheet having a left edge region, a right edge region, and a width, and means for connecting the ballot book to a top surface of the planar support card with its voter information sheets overlapping one another and the machine-readable ballot card, each voting information sheet carrying informative indicia that describes available voting options and corresponding ballot pointer indicia located at or near its right edge region, the width of the successively lower voting information sheets being successively narrower, each successively lower voting information sheet extending beyond the first perforated line and overlapping the machine-readable ballot card, the right edge region of each successively lower voting information sheet corresponding to and being aligned adjacent to a different and successively leftward one of the voting columns of the machine-readable ballot card, the ballot pointer indicia at or near the right edge of each successively lower voting information sheet visually correlating individual ones of the available voting options described by the informative indicia on that particular sheet with individual ones of the markable voting response locations in the corresponding voting column of the ballot card, the voting information sheets being moveable one after the other, from top to bottom, to expose each successively lower voting information sheet, available voting options, and ballot pointer indicia, and the corresponding successively leftward voting column, and the first perforated line holding the ballot card relative to the planar support card and thereby relative to the ballot book, the first perforated line holding the ballot card's markable voting response locations in alignment with the ballot book's corresponding ballot pointer indicia during marking, and the first perforated line releasing the ballot card for tabulation after marking.