Patent ID: 7533813

Claim:
A wireless voting method restricting the registration of votes to votes from voters within an authorized voting region bounded by optically opaque walls, the method comprising: arranging an optical output arrangement in the authorized voting region; optically outputting an optical voting indication from the optical arrangement based on a signal from a voting controller, the optical output being the only output of the voting indication, thereby restricting the voting indication to the authorized voting region, -the optical voting indication comprising an optical output transmitted into and restricted within the authorized voting region and being directed to and the same for all voters; providing a portable handsets to each of a plurality of voters to enable each voter to input a vote and to carry the handset into and out of the authorized voting region; controlling each handsets to receive a vote input by a voter, and to receive a vote enabling input derived from the optical voting indication, the vote enabling input being the same for all the handsets, the plurality of handsets being capable of electromagnetically transmitting the vote input by a user to the voting controller; controlling the voting controller to receive and process transmitted vote inputs, said voting controller being capable of registering the vote inputs; and controlling the voting controller and/or each handset in response to the vote enabling input to enable the vote inputs to be processed and registered, wherein any vote inputs received by handsets that did not receive the vote enabling input are disregarded.