Automated postal voting system and method

Abstract

A voting indicium product including a human-readable portion to represent a unique vote identification element for a specific ballot choice by a specific voter. The voting indicium further including a bar-coded portion to represent the unique vote identification element for the specific ballot choice by the specific voter, the bar-coded portion encoding at least the unique vote identification element.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
   
   
       21 . A voting indicium product comprising:
 a substrate constructed to be affixed to a mail piece, the substrate having embodied thereon a human-readable portion representing a unique vote identification element, the unique vote identification element including encoded information corresponding to a specific ballot choice and a specific voter selecting the specific ballot choice; and   a machine-readable portion representing a machine-readable form of the unique vote identification element, the machine-readable portion having encoded information including at least the unique vote identification element.   
   
   
       22 . The voting indicium product of  claim 21 , wherein the machine-readable portion includes a bar-code portion. 
   
   
       23 . The voting indicium product of  claim 22 , wherein the bar-code portion includes a datamatrix. 
   
   
       24 . The voting indicium product of  claim 21 , wherein the machine-readable portion includes a unique security code. 
   
   
       25 . The voting indicium product of  claim 21 , wherein the specific ballot choice corresponds to a corporate proxy vote ballot choice. 
   
   
       26 . The voting indicium product of  claim 21 , wherein the human-readable portion and the machine-readable portion are visible externally to the mail piece. 
   
   
       27 . A method for counting ballots, the method comprising:
 providing a voting indicium affixed to a mail piece, the voting indicium including a machine readable portion having encoded information indicating a specific ballot choice associated with a specific voter registration number;   placing the mail piece on a mail sorting apparatus;   automatically reading the voting indicium using the mail sorting apparatus; and   tabulating a vote indicated by the specific ballot choice.   
   
   
       28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the voting indicium further includes a human readable portion having encoded textual information corresponding to the specific ballot choice associated with the specific voter registration number. 
   
   
       29 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the voting indicium is disposed on the mail piece so as to be visible externally to the mail piece. 
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the voting indicium is disposed on the mail piece so as to be readable by an external imaging device without having to open the mail piece. 
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the voter registration number corresponds to a proxy voter of a corporation and the specific ballot choice is a ballot choice of a corporate proxy ballot. 
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the automatically reading occurs in a government postal mail sorting facility. 
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the automatically reading occurs in a private commercial facility. 
   
   
       34 . A voting indicium product comprising:
 a substrate constructed to be affixed to a mail piece, the substrate having embodied thereon a machine-readable portion representing a machine-readable form of a unique vote identification element, the unique vote identification element including encoded information corresponding to a specific ballot choice and a specific voter selecting the specific ballot choice.   
   
   
       35 . The voting indicium product of  claim 34 , wherein the voting indicium product further comprises a human-readable portion representing a human-readable form of the unique vote identification element. 
   
   
       36 . The voting indicium product of  claim 34 , wherein the machine-readable portion includes a bar-code portion. 
   
   
       37 . The voting indicium product of  claim 36 , wherein the bar-code portion includes a datamatrix. 
   
   
       38 . The voting indicium product of  claim 34 , wherein the machine-readable portion includes a security code. 
   
   
       39 . The voting indicium product of  claim 34 , wherein the unique vote identification element corresponds to a ballot choice associated with a private organization election. 
   
   
       40 . A postal voting system comprising:
 a voter registration database adapted to store voter registration identification numbers each associated with a corresponding individual voter;   a voted database adapted to store information indicating which individual voters, identified by respective voter registration identification numbers, have cast votes;   a postal voting component coupled to the voter registration identification database, the voted database, and at least one mail sorting machine, the postal voting component including a processor;   a votes cast database coupled to the postal voting component,   wherein the postal voting component includes a computer readable medium having software instructions embodied thereon, the software instructions, when executed, cause the postal voting component processor to perform a series of functions including:   generating unique postal voting indicia by accessing the voter registration database and ballot choice information, each of the indicia corresponding to a specific ballot choice associated with a specific voter registration identification number;   automatically reading mail pieces using the at least one mail sorting machine to identify any mail pieces having at least one postal voting indicium affixed thereon;   tabulating votes read from the mail pieces, a vote being indicated by the at least one postal voting indicium affixed to each of the mail pieces and storing tabulated voting results in the votes cast database; and   storing an indication in the voted database, for each postal voting indicium read, that a voter associated with that indicium has cast a vote, the indication being stored in the voted database in a record associated with the voter registration number corresponding to the voter.