JP2003173382A - Electronic vote and vote count method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide technology relating to an electronic vote and vote count method shortening the time required to the work of vote and vote count in an election, reducing the number of invalid ballots and disputed ballots in voting, and reducing the number of nonvoters by facilitating absentee votes, and reducing the number of the invalid ballots and disputed ballots in the absentee votes. <P>SOLUTION: As shown in Fig. 1, a system practicing the electronic vote and vote count relating to the form 1 of the execution is roughly composed of reception (a reception means) 10; a voting means (an electronic voting device) 30, and a counting means 60, and the reception means 10, the voting means 30, and the counting means 60 are connected to a network such as the Internet, and the counting means 60 has a server 60A for controlling voting data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to election voting / voting, and more particularly to an electronic voting / voting method using electronic data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the special law of the Public Offices Election Law aims to speed up the work of throwing and counting votes, such as the establishment of the "Electromagnetic Record Voting Special Law" that introduces electronic voting in local elections.
In the current elections in local governments (municipalities) under the Public Offices Election Law, the counting of votes is done manually. In addition, when there is a small difference in the votes between the winner and the runner-up, the number of votes obtained by the absentee vote also has a large impact on the election results.

The following techniques have been disclosed in order to speed up the counting and counting of votes manually performed. First, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 6-35936 discloses a technique for automating the voting action and counting work of elections, and improving the efficiency and reliability of voting and counting work.
This technology uses a key card that is distributed to qualified voters in exchange for a voting post at the polling place's acceptance, and the key card detection device detects that the key card has been inserted into the key card insertion hole. Then, the data input operation for voting using the coordinate input device and the plane display device of the voting terminal is permitted. In this case, when an invalid card is inserted, an alarm is issued by a speaker and a message to that effect is displayed on the screen to further enhance the reliability of voting. In addition, if the card is pulled out during operation or if the interrupt button is pressed, the processing is interrupted and the operation up to that point is disabled to improve operability and reliability. It is a thing.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-35939 discloses that
Technology has been made public to enable the voting and counting work of elections to be automated and to improve the efficiency of voting and counting work. In this technology, data is input for voting on the screen of a flat display device, and the name of a candidate or political party entered by a voter with a pen is entered on a ballot form for issuance. For this reason, the voting action of the election can be automated, so that the voting can be performed quickly and efficiently, and the data of the voting contents can be converted and processed into various data formats, and the efficiency of the counting work can be improved. You can also
Furthermore, since the candidate name or political party name entered by the voter is entered in the ballot form and issued, the voter can confirm his / her vote contents by the handwritten image and print type of the ballot form, and By putting the ballot in the ballot box, the conventional voting form can be used as it is.

[0005]

However, the prior art has the following problems.

If the difference in votes between the winner and the runner-up is small,
Not only the delay in the counting work and invalid votes / questionary votes, but the number of votes of absentee votes, which are separately voted, also has a great influence on the judgment of the outcome of the win, and it may be necessary to re-election depending on the number of votes in doubt. There was a problem.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to shorten the time required for the work related to the voting / voting in the election, and to eliminate the invalid votes / questionnaire by voting. The aim is to provide a technology for an electronic voting / voting method that reduces the number of absentees by reducing the number of absentees and facilitating absentee voting, thereby reducing invalid votes / questionary votes regarding absentee voting.

[0008]

The gist of the present invention according to claim 1 is an electronic voting / voting method for managing votes in elections, in which an elector is accepted by using an acceptance means having a terminal function. 1 step, and a second step of urging the voter having the terminal function to input the data of the political party name and the candidate name to the voter who is judged as the legitimate elector in the first step. A third step of transmitting the data to an aggregation means including a server via a network such as the Internet; and a fourth step of accumulating the transmitted data in a database on the server in the aggregation means. A fifth step of totalizing data in the database at a preset date and time, and an electronic voting / voting method. The gist of the present invention according to claim 2 is that, in the first step, the reception unit is processed by an operator.
A sixth step of determining whether or not the elector is valid by accessing the electoral list, which is a database of election abstracts registered in advance on the server, and referring the elector on the electoral list. A seventh step of issuing a voting card recording data capable of identifying the elector to the voter determined to be a legitimate elector in the sixth step, the second step Includes an eighth step in which the voting means prompts the data input by the voter using the voting card, and the fourth step includes voting data in which the transmitted data is stored in the database. The electronic voting / voting method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of accumulating. The gist of the present invention according to claim 3 is that, in the third step, data for identifying an elector recorded in the voting card is added to each piece of data input by the voter, and the counting means is added. To the absentee voting data, which is the database, and the fifth step includes the step of transmitting the data to the absentee voting data, which is the database. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of deleting an additional data portion that can identify an elector in the absentee voting data and adding the absentee voting data to the voting data before the aggregation of the absentee voting data. It exists in the electronic voting / voting method described in. The gist of the present invention according to claim 4 is that, in the seventh step, each time the voting card is issued, data of a corresponding elector is transmitted to the server, and the voting card has been issued to the electoral list. The electronic voting / voting method according to claim 2 or 3, further comprising the step of preventing issuance processing of a plurality of voting cards for the same elector by performing the above processing. The gist of the present invention according to claim 5 is that the reception means performs erasable recording such as magnetic recording on the voting card, and erases the recording of the voting card collected after voting by the voter. The electronic voting / voting method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the voting card can be reused during a voting period. The gist of the present invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that the second step includes a step of printing the content of data input by the voter as a ballot sheet to be inserted into a ballot box. The electronic voting / voting method described in any one of 5 above exists. The gist of the present invention according to claim 7 is that the vote of the voter is accepted by moving to one or a plurality of places by using the portable reception means and voting means. The electronic voting / voting method according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The gist of the present invention according to claim 8 is that the accepting means automatically issues the voting card by making the operator an elector. It exists in the electronic voting / voting method of. The gist of the present invention according to claim 9 is a computer program that executes a counting means, a receiving means, or a voting means in the electronic voting / voting method according to any one of claims 1 to 8. Claim 1
A program characterized by causing each step of the electronic voting / voting method according to any one of 8 to 8 to be executed.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment.
It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the system which performs the electronic voting / voting method concerning this.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system for executing the electronic voting / voting method according to the first embodiment is a reception (reception means) 10, a voting means (electronic voting machine) 30, and a counting means 6.
0, the accepting unit 10, the voting unit 30, and the totaling unit 60 are each connected to a network such as the Internet, and the totaling unit 60 formed of a computer or the like serves as a database of received data. A server 60A for managing 60B is provided.

At the reception 10, the server 6 at the time of voting acceptance
An elector's list (not shown) registered in 0A is inquired to confirm the elector (indicated by principal confirmation information A01 in the figure).

The elector uses the electronic voting machine 30 which has a terminal function and is a dedicated machine for voting to vote. This electronic voting machine 30 can display a political party name or a candidate name on a display or the like, and can accept pen input or touch panel input by an elector. In addition, handwritten OCR input,
OMR input on the mark sheet or keyboard input combining voice guidance 30A and Braille 30B as shown in the figure is also possible.

In the electronic voting machine 30, the elector can use the electronic voting machine 3
The voted data using 0 is transmitted to the server 60A (indicated by transfer of voted data A02 in the figure). At the same time, the voting paper 30C is printed. As in the conventional case, the voter votes the ballot form 30C into the ballot box 30D (in the figure, the ballot box shows a vote A03).

The server 60A in the counting means 60 receives the voted data and stores it in the vote data 60B.

After the voting time is over, the counting means 60 counts the data accumulated in the voting data 60B of the server 60A and performs counting processing.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 2 shows the second embodiment.
It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the system which performs the electronic voting / voting method concerning this.

Although the basic configuration of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, the server 61A is a database for managing voting data 60B, electoral list 61C, and absentee voting, and the absentee voting data. 61D is managed.
The electoral list 61C is a database of election abstracts registered in advance. Also, a reusable voting card 10A using a magnetic recording system or the like is used during the voting acceptance time.

The elector takes the admission ticket to the polling place, and receives the voting card 10A at the reception 10 of the polling place after being checked against the electoral list 61C on the server 61A.
At this time, the data of the corresponding elector in the electoral list 61C has been accepted.

Next, the elector (voter) will receive a voting card 10
Use A to vote with the electronic voting machine 30. Voting card 1
OA can vote for one voter only once.
The voted data is accumulated in the server 61A. The content of the vote is printed on the voting paper 30C and output. After confirming the content, vote for the ballot box 30D as in the conventional election method. After voting is completed, the voting card 10A is returned.
The returned voting card 10A is initialized and reused.

Next, the flow of the entire operation in the second embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, the electoral list 61C in each municipality
Is built on the server 61A. The electoral list 61C is registered for citizens who have the right to vote. Voters will be sent a voting admission ticket in advance to inform them of the polling place and date.

Next, at the time of voting acceptance, based on the voting admission ticket,
The electoral list 61C is searched through a network (not shown) such as the Internet to confirm the elector.

The voting card 10A is issued to a voter who is confirmed to be an elector. Voters use an electronic voting machine (voting means) 30 to vote.

The voting data is transmitted to the server 61A and stored in the voting data 60B. At the same time, the electronic voting machine 30 prints / outputs the input data such as the political party name and the candidate name on the ballot paper 30C, and votes in the ballot box 30D in the same manner as in the past, with the confirmation of the voter. Receive (indicated by voting A03 in the voting box in the figure). This has the meaning of a backup system in which when a malfunction occurs in a system such as the electronic voting machine 30 or a network, the ballot form 30C on which data is printed is used to count votes.

When the voting process by the voter is completed, the voting card 10A is returned (indicated by a returning process A04 in the figure),
The reception means 10 initializes the content so that it can be reused.

After the voting time is over, the counting means 60 provided with the server 61A performs the vote counting process in a batch process.

Next, the absentee voting performed before the voting date will be described with reference to FIG.

When the absentee ballot is carried out, the same processing as the above-mentioned normal election day is carried out, but the voting card 10A is used.
The data which can identify the absentee voter in the electoral list 61C is recorded in, and the data voted by the electronic voting machine 30 is transmitted to the absentee vote data 61D and accumulated.

In the absentee voting data 61D, each elector of the electoral list 61C is associated with the voted data. That is, data for identifying an elector is added to each transmitted data.

On a general voting day, or before voting processing after the end of voting time, the link between the elector and the voted data is removed (the added data portion that can identify the elector is deleted. ) Absentee voting data 61D to voting data 6
Add to 0B.

The stored absentee ballot papers are also put in the general ballot box on the general voting day or before the voting process after the voting time ends.

A portable electronic voting machine 3 for electors who cannot go to general polling places such as people with physical disabilities
You can also use 0 to visit electors individually and accept absentee votes.

In the present embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a technique relating to an electronic voting / voting method suitable for applying the present invention.

In the reception means 10 at the reception place,
By confirming the personal information and password of the elector, it is possible to automatically issue the voting card 10A and automate the reception.

Further, the number, positions, shapes, etc. of the above-mentioned constituent members are not limited to those in the above-mentioned embodiment, and the numbers, positions, shapes, etc. suitable for carrying out the present invention can be adopted.

In each drawing, the same components are designated by the same reference numerals.

[0038]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

The first effect is that by automating the totalizing work, the time for counting the votes can be greatly shortened. The reason is that the computer is used instead of the manual counting work that has been done so far.

The second effect is that the number of invalid votes and interrogative votes is greatly reduced. The reason is that by voting on the touch panel, Braille, or voice, it is possible to eliminate the adverse effects such as the difficulty of seeing the letters of the voter as in the case of writing the candidate name or party name.

The third effect is that it is possible to reduce the number of troubles that occur when there is a small difference in the votes between the winner and the runner-up. The reason is that the number of votes obtained by the absentee voting, which is processed separately, is quickly added up.

The fourth effect is expected to be an increase in the voting rate. The reason is that voters (electors) who have difficulty going out to polling places can vote.

The fifth effect is that the number of staff members at the polling place can be reduced. The reason is that a voting card can be automatically issued by acceptance by confirming the personal information and password of the elector at the acceptance means at the acceptance location.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system for executing an electronic voting / voting method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system that executes an electronic voting / voting method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Reception (reception means) 10A voting card 30 electronic voting machines (voting means) 30A voice guidance 30B Braille 30C ballot 30D ballot box 60 counting means 60A server 60B voting data 61A server 61C electoral list 61D Absentee Voting Data A01 Identity confirmation information A02 Transfer of voted data Vote for A03 ballot box A04 Return processing

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. Electronic voting to manage voting in elections
A vote counting method, a first step of accepting an elector by using a reception means having a terminal function, and a voter judged by the voting means having a terminal function to be a valid elector in the first step. A second step of prompting the party to enter data on a political party name or a candidate name, and a third step of transmitting the entered data to an aggregating means including a server via a network such as the Internet.
And a fourth step of accumulating the transmitted data in a database on the server in the aggregating means, and a fifth step of aggregating the data in the database at a preset date and time. An electronic voting / voting method that is characterized by 2. In the first step, the accepting means accesses an electoral list, which is a database of election abstracts registered in advance in the server, by processing by an operator, and sends the elector to the elector. By inquiring in the roster,
A sixth step of determining whether the elector is legitimate,
A seventh step of issuing a voting card recording data capable of identifying the elector to the voter determined to be a legitimate elector in the sixth step, and the second step , Including an eighth step in which the voter performs a process of prompting data input by using the vote card by the voter, and the fourth step converts the transmitted data into vote data which is the database. The electronic voting / voting method according to claim 1, comprising a step of accumulating. 3. The third step includes a step of adding data for identifying the elector recorded on the voting card to each piece of data input by the voter and transmitting the data to the counting means. The fourth step includes a step of accumulating the data to which the data capable of identifying an elector is added in the absentee voting data, which is the database, and the fifth step, prior to data aggregation, 2. A step of deleting an added data portion that can identify an elector in the absentee voting data and adding the absentee voting data to the voting data.
Or the electronic voting / voting method described in 2. 4. The seventh step is such that, each time the voting card is issued, data of a corresponding elector is transmitted to the server, and the electoral list is processed to issue the voting card. The electronic voting / voting method according to claim 2 or 3, further comprising a step of preventing a process of issuing a plurality of voting cards for the same elector. 5. The voting means performs erasable recording such as magnetic recording on the voting card, and erases the recording of the voting card collected after voting by the voter during the voting period. The electronic voting / voting method according to claim 2, wherein the voting card is reusable. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second step includes a step of printing the content of data input by the voter as a ballot sheet to be inserted into a ballot box. E-voting / counting method. 7. The vote of the voter is accepted by moving to one or a plurality of places by using the portable reception means and voting means. The electronic voting / voting method described in any one of 6 above. 8. The electronic voting according to claim 2, wherein the acceptance unit automatically issues the voting card by making the operator an elector.
How to vote. 9. A computer program for executing the counting means, the accepting means, or the voting means in the electronic voting / voting method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the computer program comprises: A program that causes each step of the electronic voting / voting method described in any one of 1) to be executed.