ITRM20080498A1 - SYSTEM AND MEANS FOR THE VALIDATION OF THE RIGHT ADVENT AND THE WRITING OF THE VOTE CARDS. - Google Patents

Description

â € œSystem and means for the validation of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers.â €

Description

The object of the present invention is a system consisting of a machine that allows to carry out the final ballot of the vote expressed and together with a station for biometric identification, also the enabling and control afterwards or immediately of the owner. right to vote. The invention is applicable to any political and administrative electoral consultation and for organizations and companies.

As is well known, the expression of vote, free from any conditioning, other than that of being anonymous, univocal, unalterable and / or irreplaceable, conditions that must always be verifiable, associated with the free proposition of candidates, is the very essence of the democracy of a state. A voting limitation is due to the fact that the physical presence in a given electoral section of a given city is necessary for the citizen registered on the electoral roll of that given section of that city where he is a resident. However, this fact is inconvenient for many voters. Furthermore, the grouping of voters in a given section allows at least, for the lists and candidates who potentially receive fewer preferences, to be able to control the preferences received and expressed by the voters, which is contrary to the main requirement of absolute confidentiality of the vote.

The existence, repeatedly discovered, of a double or triple residence is another problem, due to the fact that many municipalities update their lists of residents late and unwillingly.

As is well known, studies and realizations are underway all over the world to achieve a secure delocalized voting system, in the sense that the person entitled and the vote expressed cannot be duplicated or falsified. A variety of software and hardware solutions have been created and proposed, with the use of the internet and smart-cards that act as electronic identity cards, and with the dissociation of the voter from the vote, according to a probabilistic algorithm and with the encryption of the expression of the vote. But the complexity of these systems and the not easy and immediate verifiability of the stages of the procedure and their potential penetration by hacker attacks has not allowed an extensive use so far but limited only to a few electoral rounds mostly considered experimental, the whose results were essentially unsuccessful or considered with strong suspicion.

It is well known that another delicate moment for democracy is precisely the carrying out of the polling of ballot papers, subject to potential fraud even greater than the voting phase.

The purpose of the present invention is essentially to propose a system for voting scrutiny and for voting accreditation, which speeds up operations, reduces errors and is easy to use and inexpensive to manage for entities and administrations.

The purpose of the present invention in accordance with the previous one is to propose a machine, within a polling station, equipped with a digital display, readers / scanners of electronic or paper identification cards and voting cards, reading / writing supports for databases on DVD or equivalent media, a printer and an external keyboard, a portable mirror device with a high resolution camera and a microphone for capturing the voice print, for immediate or a posteriori control of the voter's correspondence to the data present on the identity document, and which allows the identification of the person entitled to vote and therefore the authorization to vote with a communication device with a Voting Service Center, CSV, on a secure and redundant network.

Another object of the present invention in accordance with the previous one in which the biometric station is provided with a fixed device having two mirrors each with a high resolution camera.

Another purpose of the present invention in accordance with the previous one is to allow a citizen to vote within any electoral section located within the constituency where there is a commonality of candidates and therefore of electoral ballots.

Another purpose of the present invention is to allow a quick scrutiny of the ballot papers free from errors, manipulation and cheating, with digitally operated pens, and applicable to any political and administrative electoral consultation and for organizations and companies.

The purposes and advantages will be better clarified by the following description and by the attached drawings provided for illustrative and non-limiting purposes only, in which:

The figs. la, 1 b, 1 c, 1 d, show, in a plan view, one of the possible configurations of the machine for enabling the vote and for the scrutiny of the ballot papers.

Fig. 2 shows the protective cover of the machine.

Fig. 3 shows with a diagram the assembly of the station proposed according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a sketch of the portable mirror device for biometric identification of the voter.

Fig. 5 shows a sketch of the fixed mirror device for the biometric identification of the voter.

In accordance with the attached drawings, the present invention comprises: a digitally operated machine (1), described in one of its various possible configurations, provided, on one side (2) at a corner, with inputs (3) for a socket electric current adequately equipped with filters to avoid unwanted disturbances and inferences, and with three USB ports, and / or Ethernet, or equivalent; in the center on the same side of two optical units (4) and (5) for playback / recording of high capacity DVD discs (6 ') and 6' (double layer), and at the other corner , on the same side (2) of five connection ports, for a keyboard (7), for a printer (8) and for another display, another printer or an additional scanner, and an additional input for a microphone. On the opposite side there is a handle (9) for transporting the machine.

Inside it is contained all the electronic command and control of the machine in the form of hardware and firmware devices where the software also resides, as well as a permanent and an erasable memory unit, and an autonomous power supply unit (accumulator) and a scanner. On the upper face, for most of the surface, there is the display (10), preferably liquid crystal, color and high definition, with a minimum size of 21 inches. The display is equipped with highly sensitive touch-screen technology.

On the front portion there is the slot (11) for inserting the ballot papers, or other paper documents, (identity card, passport), of the entrance door (12) of the coded electronic key (27) for enabling the machine (1), and the slot (13) for inserting the electronic identity card on the smart-card (45), the on / off key (14), the selection key (15) which allows the recognition of the type of document paper that is inserted into the slot (11), whether it is the voting card or an identity document, the CONFIRM key (18) of the vote, the CANCEL key (19) of the vote, the key (20) to activate the Use of the keyboard, the key (21) for adjusting the height of the cameras, and the key (22) for activating the cameras, the red LED (23) which signals the presence of an error or failure, and the green led (24) signals the activation of the machine and that everything is going well.

On the front of the machine there is the exit slot (25) from the internal scanner, of the paper document inserted in the slot (11); on the side there is a led (26), which flashes to indicate any problems; if this led is off, the scanner cannot be used; if the LED has a steady light it is ready for use.

By pressing the button (15) the scanner inside the slot (11) accepts and recognizes only the voting card or the identity document respectively. If a document other than the expected and selected one is inserted, an error signal is generated, the red LED (23) flashes and the message DOCUMENT NOT RECOGNIZED appears on the monitor.

The machine turns on with the ON / OFF button (14) provided with a green LED integrated in the button, which signals that it has been turned on or off. In order to activate the machine it is necessary to insert the digital electronic key (27), described in its functions, in the patent SA2007A000001 in the data input port (12). Once the machine has been activated in its functions, the key must not be extracted during operation relating to the counting of the ballot papers except within the time established by the clock inside the machine. On the other hand, during the operations for recognizing and enabling the voter to vote, the key is extracted, once the machine is activated, because the operations are recorded progressively on DVD or equivalent non-modifiable media.

When the ballot is carried out, the operations stored in the machine are continuously transferred both to the digital key as the voting data is made and written to the DVD media. It is also possible to write them on DVD media or equivalent only at the end of the scrutiny operations. In this case, each scanned card is stored in the machine's memory in a non-erasable manner except when it has been fully transferred to DVD media and the report of the operations carried out has been printed.

When the red LED (23) lights up, it signals an error, accompanied by an acoustic signal, and works both during the voter validation and ballot operations.

Both the display (10) and the loudspeaker signals or reminds! chairman the main actions to be taken during the voting scrutiny phases:

â € œenter coded keyâ €,

â € œpress toggle keyâ €,

â € œinsert ballot paperâ €,

â € œIncorrect introduction of a card

â € œreading of the vote failedâ €,

â € œVote entry from keyboardâ €,

â € œTerms printâ €,

â € œdeactivate coded keyâ €,

â € œsignal type of failure ";

and the main actions to be carried out during the voter validation phases: â € œinsert coded key ",

â € œpress toggle keyâ €,

"remove coded key",

`` incorrect face detection or digitization '',

â € œwrong digitization of an identification documentâ €,

`` non-compliant voiceprint '',

â € œsignal type of failureâ €.

The machine (1) is equipped with an L-shaped cover (28), useful for protecting the upper and lateral parts where the active and control parts of the machine (1) are; the cover (28) is inserted on the upper face of the machine (1) and is provided with pins (29) on the four corners that fit into the holes (30) internally provided with electromechanical locking / unlocking devices controlled by the clock inside the machine , so that the lid can only be lifted at the appointed time.

In the preferred and described embodiment of the present invention, use can take place as follows:

once the machine has been turned on by the seat chairman, by pressing the ON / OFF key (14) and inserting the coded electronic key (27) in the door (12), the green LED (24) signals that the device is ready and able to validate the voter or ballot; if the red LED (23) lights up, the device is not ready, for various reasons, for example there is no power supply and the batteries are flat, or there is a fault and it is necessary to call technical assistance. The machine is automatically adjusted by an irreversible electronic clock, positioned inside it and protected both mechanically and electronically. The coded key with electronic functioning inserted in the door (12) that equips each machine, allows any opening or closing of the functioning of the machine outside of those established by the irreversible electronic clock.

Enabling takes place at the time established for the opening of the voter identification and ballot operations. In any case, the president must insert his own coded key, otherwise it is not possible to identify the voters or to scrutinize the ballot papers and the machines are disabled. In this case, the authorization can only be made by the superior manager according to a decoding procedure. Before disabling each machine, they print a report, certifying all the operations carried out and carried out by the president with the coded key. The report also resides in the machine's memory for any checks. In practice, the coded digital key acts as an automatic recorder of the operations carried out. Each ballot data relating to a ballot paper is stored and forms a single folder.

Each folder is recognizable by a date and time and by an automatically assigned code

Naturally, in order to vote, the citizen must be enabled to vote and therefore unambiguously recognized so that he cannot reiterate his vote. The voter recognition and validation system that allows you to identify the voter and keep track of the fact that he has voted without associating the voter with his vote, consists of: a centralized, national database, within which the data of all those entitled to vote; from a database on optical support, or non-editable DVD (6â € ™}, which reproduces the data of all those entitled to vote placed in the centralized database and capable of sending the data obtained from the identity document associated with the biometric data of the voter to the centralized database; from a further database on DVD (6â €) which contains the data of those who voted, in practice the voting consent file received from the centralized database, in such a way that, when required, a receipt of having voted.

The voter validation system is extremely simple to implement and allows you to eliminate the possibility for the same person to vote in two or more different seats, and the very welcome advantage of allowing a person to vote where he wishes, within the scope of its constituency, and therefore also removes it from a subsequent control of the preference expressed on the individual candidates of the parties. It is no longer necessary to deliver the electoral certificates, nor to transcribe them on bulky paper registers.

The voting system consists of the following phases:

the citizen goes to an electoral complex and is recognized through a classic procedure, handing over to the president the paper or electronic identity card or another paper or electronic identification document, the president inserts in the appropriate slot (1 1) or (13) the identity document, and at this point on the display (10) appears the initial screen of the Vote Service Center, CSV, with its personal data corresponding to the document entered, in particular, name and surname, date and place of birth, and a code among those present on the document, for example, the tax code, the passport code, the identity card code or other official univocal code provided, and also the place of residence. These data are compared with those present in the databases on DVD (6 <1>) and (6â €), and if all the data are present, and do not refer to a person who has already voted, a consent file is generated which enables the voter to be identified through the biometric recognition booth. The recognition booth essentially comprises lighting lights (31) and anti-reflective panels to eliminate or reduce shadows, a vertical support base (32) for two mirrors (33) and (34) each equipped with a camera (35) for face shot: one camera takes the photo from a front angle, the other from a side angle; the cabin is also equipped with microphones (41) for recording the voice print. The mirrors are positioned vertically according to the height of the voter, manually or automatically by means of a collimator that measures the height of the voter; inside the base (32) there is a rod with a worm screw that is set in motion manually by means of a toothed wheel operated by a knob, or by an electric motor remotely controlled by the machine (1), by pressing the key ( 21). A speaker guides the voter, sending instructions. Once the voter has positioned himself according to the instructions, the recording of the voice print is proposed first, by means of the diction of a sample word. If the word is not recognized (according to a protocol that determines an admissible error percentage) CentroServiziVoto invites you to try again. If the word is recognized, CentroServiziVoto records the voice print and associates it with personal data, then invites the voter to position himself appropriately for the photo. The mirrors are provided with a centering cross (36) which helps the voter to position himself correctly. If the photo is not successful (according to a protocol that determines an admissible error percentage) CentroServiziVoto invites you to try again and helps the voter to position himself correctly.

Instead of the biometric booth, it is possible to use a portable device (37) consisting of a mirror (38) with a framing cross (39) and on which a camera (40) and microphone (41) are integrated for capture. voice print. In this case it is possible to obtain the photo of a single shot of the face, the front one.

The biometric data (photo and voice print) are uniquely associated with the personal data on the identity card and previously compared and validated with those on the DVD (6 <1>), and a protected file is generated which is sent, on a secure line, a! centralized database that checks it and records the voter uniquely, and sends consent to! vote, and its data are automatically entered in a third database on DVD (6â €) protected from any overwriting or modification of the data entered: the citizen can then vote. In practice, whenever the image of the face and the voice print associated with the personal data arrives at the CSV, a file is generated that represents a person entitled to vote, which is associated with a validation code of the permit. which is always unique, and is recorded on the DVD f6â €) on board the machine (1). Therefore, the biomeirical data will be used for an a posteriori control, or in the immediacy, which discourages any attempt to replace a legitimate voter.

Once the voting has been carried out and the ballot boxes closed, the ballot operations are carried out. The president or his representative presses the button (15) and inserts the ballot paper into the slot (11); its content appears on the display (10), while the card comes out of the slot (25), and the chairman takes it and checks that its content is that shown on the display (10):

a) if the content is not the same, the chairman presses the CANCEL button (19) and puts the card back into the slot (11). If the error is repeated, press the CANCEL key and try again, or press the key (20) to enable the use of the keyboard and a screen for entering the vote appears on the display (10), to facilitate the entry of the votes. from keyboard; he then enters the vote as present on the ballot paper from the keyboard and reads the paper ballot in the classic way so that the scrutineers can fill in the ballot tables with the respective digital penalty;

b) if the content is the same, read or have the ballot read in the classic way, so that the scrutineers mark the vote on their respective scrutiny tables. Each teller is equipped with a digital pen (43) of the type with Anoto technology or other equivalent technology, which allows to memorize the mark made on the paper register (44). The digital pen sends, via cable or wireless, the preferences recorded on its paper register, which are displayed on the monitor (10) of the machine, which displays the data referring to the scrutinized cards and the registers of the tellers. These data are displayed and continuously compared in such a way that what results from the ballot paper must correspond to what each teller marks on his paper register. If there is any discrepancy, inconsistency, or error between the said votes, the machine signals it.

If there is no inconsistency, discrepancy or error, the message VALID VOTE appears on the display (10) and the chairman presses the CONFIRM key (18) and the vote is recorded and attributed;

if an inconsistency, discrepancy or error is found, the machine signals it with the message INVALID VOTE; the chairman checks the correctness of the data of the tellers and those on the original ballot paper, and if there is visual confirmation of the error, the chairman presses the CANCEL key (19) and the vote is not stored and disappears from the display ( 10). And it is possible to reinsert the voting card again, in the slot (11) of the scanner, or press the key (20) to activate the keyboard (7), the insertion mask then appears on the display (10) to facilitate the correction. of grades with the keyboard. The correction of the votes on the ballot tables is done with the ink of the digital pen.

The coded electronic key (27) records and verbalizes the corrections or changes made.

The seat president or his representative, may intervene in the following possible ways:

corrects the error if one or both tellers have entered a wrong mark on the paper register that does not correspond to the one shown on the ballot paper;

corrects the error if the reader (scanner) has detected a sign that does not correspond to the evidently valid one expressed on the ballot paper;

accepts the vote determined by the code reader when the obvious one is affected by nullity.

All the operations performed are recorded both by the coded digital key and by the internal memory of the machine which prints a record of the operations on a DVD or a memory-card with a label or other digital memory device, anti-counterfeiting and writing only. The closing of the ballot operations takes place at! time foreseen by the clock inside the machine and only when the report of the operations carried out has been printed on DVD or equivalent non-modifiable medium. The report of the operations carried out can also be printed on paper by pressing the key (42) which activates a connected external printer (8).

Among the many possible embodiments of the machine according to the present invention, this can be configured similar to a notebook with a sensitive, flip-up and fully rotatable screen; in this case the scanner unit is not integrated but connected to the outside by cable like the printer.

Claims (6)

Claims 1) System and means for the validation of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers characterized by the fact that the validation phase of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny phase are carried out with : a) a machine equipped with a DVD reader / writer; an identity card reader on a smart-card; a door for a coded digital key for enabling the functions and for recording the commands of the machine itself; an integrated display on which personal data and biometrics are viewed and checked during the voting phase of the person entitled to vote! of the voter, and during the scrutiny phase, the ballot papers and the scrutineers' tables; an integrated reader / scanner, for the reading and acquisition of selected paper documents, specifically, identity cards and voting cards; of command buttons and signaling LEDs; a printer and an external keyboard; an electromechanical timed operation protection cover; and a data transmission line to and from remote sites; b) a station for the acquisition of biometric data, specifically images of the face and the vocal imprint of the voter; c) a remote Voting Service Center to which the voterâ € ™ s personal and biometric data are sent and the voterâ € ™ s authorization to vote is received with a file, writable on DVD or on a non-modifiable digital reading medium; d) two digitally operated electronic pens that allow you to transcribe and digitize your voting preferences on paper ballot tables and send them via cable or wireless, to be displayed on the machine monitor. 2) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that the control keys and the signaling LEDs are: the on / off key (14), the selection (15) for the recognition of the type of paper document that is introduced into the slot (11), whether it is the voting card or an identity document, the CONFIRM key (18) of the vote, the CANCEL key (19 ) of the vote, the key (20) to activate when using the keyboard (7), the key (21) for adjusting the height of the mirrors and therefore the cameras (35), and the key (22) which controls the activation of the cameras (35); the green LED (24) which signals the activation of the machine, and the red LED (23) signals the presence of an error or breakdown. 3) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as in claim 1) characterized by the fact that the station for acquiring biometric data is a portable device (37) consisting of a mirror (38) with a framing cross (39) and on which is integrated a camera (40) and microphones (41) for capturing the voice print. 4) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that the biometric data acquisition station essentially comprises anti-reflective panels and lighting lights (31) to eliminate or reduce the shadows, a vertical support base (32) for two mirrors (33) and (34) adjustable in height by pressing the button (21), each equipped with a centering cross (36) which helps the voter to position himself correctly and a camera (35) for recording the second face, respectively, two angles, one from the front and one from the side, and a microphone for recording the voice print by means of the diction of a sample word. 5) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that the machine is equipped with an L-shaped protective cover (28), having, at the four corners, the pins (29) that fit into the holes (30) of the machine (1) provided, internally, with electromechanical locking / unlocking devices controlled by the clock inside the machine, so that the lid can only be lifted at the ™ now established. 6) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that the voter is identified by means of a centralized, national database, within which the data of all the entitled to vote; from a database on DVD or equivalent non-modifiable medium, which reproduces the data of all those entitled to vote placed in the centralized database; from a further database on DVD which shows the data, progressively stored, of who voted, in practice the voting consent file received from the centralized database, after the data obtained from the identity document associated with the biometric data of the voter at the Voting Service Center, CSV 7) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1} characterized by the fact that during the scrutiny phase, each ballot data relating to a ballot paper is stored both in the digital coded key (27) than on the DVD and forms a single folder; each folder is recognizable by a date and time and by an automatically assigned code. 8) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that during the scrutiny phase the monitor (10) of the machine (1) displays the data referring to the ballots of votes scrutinized and from the registers of the tellers, and continuously compared in such a way that what results from the ballot paper must correspond to what each teller marks on his paper register. 9) Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that during the scrutiny phase, the machine (1) signals that it has not detected any discrepancy, inconsistency, or error between the votes that refer to the ballot papers and the registers of the tellers, causing the message VALID VOTE to appear on the display (10); and with the CONFIRM key (18) the vote is recorded and attributed; if it has detected an inconsistency, discrepancy or error, the machine displays the message INVALID VOTE on the display (10); and if you have visual confirmation of the error, the CANCEL key (19) allows the vote not to be stored and disappears from the display (10). } Validation system of the person entitled to vote and the scrutiny of the ballot papers as per claim 1) characterized by the fact that during the scrutiny phase, with the key (15) the ballot form is selected and inserted in the slot (11) and its contents appear on the display (10), while the ballot paper comes out of the slot (25); if the content of the ballot paper is not what is shown on the display (10), with the key (20) the keyboard (7) is activated, and a mask for entering votes appears on the display (10), to facilitate the correction of the votes with the keyboard,