JP3854803B2 - Voting terminal for electronic voting and voting result recording device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic voting for performing election relates to electronic voting voting terminal and voting result recording equipment, in particular for implementing the electronic voting.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In national and local government elections, electors have traditionally entered the names of candidates (also referred to as candidacy candidates) on the ballot at the polling place and put them in the ballot box. However, the burden on the election manager was great, and it took a lot of time and effort to cast and vote. As a method for solving such a problem, an electronic voting terminal using the latest electronic technology has been proposed. The present applicant has already developed an electronic voting terminal and has applied for a patent (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-40111). Various electronic voting terminals have already been patented (Japanese Patent No. 2747171, Japanese Patent No. 2885657).
[0003]
In the electronic voting, it is pointed out that it is necessary to audit the voting results to check after the voting whether or not the voting is fraudulent or falsified. From the viewpoint of recording for such audits, electronic voting is recorded electronically or magnetically at the voting terminal, and a thermal printer is provided at the voting terminal to record and save the voting results. And is known in Brazil. In addition, a method in which all voting results recorded electronically or magnetically at a voting terminal are tabulated for each candidate and printed after the completion of all voting is proposed by Microboat Inc. (MircoVote) in the United States. Yes.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the technology for electronic voting that has been proposed so far, using the voting terminal at the polling place, for example, the names of candidates displayed on the display screen of the voting terminal are confirmed, and buttons and touch panels are operated. It is configured to vote electronically, but the elector can confirm the contents of the vote that he voted or the result of the vote, that is, which candidate voted for which candidate in which election after the vote. could not. In other words, in the method known in Brazil, the printing by the printer is provided inside the voting terminal so that the elector cannot see it, and in the method of the Microboat Company, the total of voting results cannot be obtained. Yes, but it was not possible to track the raw voting results voted by each elector, and since all the votes were not printed, the elector could not see the printed content.
[0005]
Therefore, when an elector voted at a voting terminal used for electronic voting, the present invention prints the voting result and saves the raw voting result, and enables the printed content to be directly visually confirmed. and to provide a voting terminal and voting result recording equipment for electronic voting.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, in addition to the voting result recorded electronically or magnetically, the voting result is printed and recorded on a printing medium, and this is displayed so that the elector can see it immediately after voting. After that, the print media is stored and used as record materials (audit trail) for election audits. Accordingly the present invention provides a electronic voting following structure voting terminal and voting result recording equipment.
[0007]
That is, according to the present invention, an electronic voting terminal provided in a polling place for electronically receiving votes,
Voting acceptance means for accepting electronic votes so that electors can select and vote for candidates,
A recording means for electronically or magnetically recording an electronic voting result received by the voting reception means on a storage medium;
Printing means for printing the voting result on a printing medium;
Display means for displaying the vote result printed on the print medium so that the elector can visually confirm;
Storage means for storing the print medium as an audit trail of voting;
A voting terminal for electronic voting is provided.
[0008]
Further, according to the present invention, the voting acceptance means is provided in a polling place for electronically accepting voting, and accepts electronic voting so that the elector can select and vote. A voting result recording device electrically connectable to a voting terminal for electronic voting having recording means for electronically or magnetically recording electronic voting results on a storage medium,
Means for receiving the voting result as electronic data from the voting terminal for electronic voting;
Printing means for printing the received voting result on a printing medium;
Display means for displaying the vote result printed on the print medium so that the elector can visually confirm;
Storage means for storing the print medium as an audit trail of voting;
A voting result recording apparatus is provided.
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a voting terminal for electronic voting according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a preferred embodiment of a voting terminal for electronic voting (also simply called a voting terminal) according to the present invention. The voting terminal of the present invention is arranged at a polling place, presents candidates who have run for election to the elector, selects the candidate that the elector wants to vote, and accepts the vote electronically. In addition, as a basic structure of a voting terminal, what is shown by Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2000-40111 which is a prior application of this applicant can be used.
[0012]
In FIG. 1, the voting terminal 1 is provided with a touch panel 10, and the names of a plurality of candidates are displayed together with the names of elections on a display device at the bottom of the touch panel 10. Can be selected by pushing with a means such as a finger or a touch pen. That is, the touch panel 10 functions as a voting accepting unit. The voting terminal 1 is provided with a voting card insertion unit 11 so that an elector can insert a voting card issued by a voting card ticketing machine in a polling place into the voting card insertion unit 11.
[0013]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the voting terminal 1. Inside the voting card insertion unit 11, a card reader 32 shown in FIG. 2 is arranged, and the recorded content of the voting card is read, whether or not it is a legitimate voting card, and only when it is judged to be legitimate, It is configured to accept votes. As the voting card, a magnetic recording medium or a card having a recording medium such as an IC can be used.
[0014]
The voting terminal 1 has a flash memory 42 and a memory card 44 as recording media, and electronically records the voting results voted by the voting terminal 1 in the flash memory 42 and the memory card 44. The voting results are recorded on the two recording media for backup. The flash memory 42 is a fixed memory, while the memory card 44 is portable so that it can be easily replaced with another memory. In this embodiment, the voting result is electronically recorded on a recording medium. However, the voting result may be magnetically recorded on a floppy disk or a hard disk.
[0015]
The recorded data of these voting results is transmitted to the voting operation management system 14 as shown in FIG. 3 during the voting or after the voting is completed, as shown in FIG. Vote results are aggregated. The total vote data of one polling place is sent to the totaling center 15, where the vote data from a plurality of polling stations are totaled. In FIG. 3, the voting operation management system 14 is configured to obtain election data from the candidate server system 13 and transmit it to each voting terminal 1.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 2, the voting terminal 1 has an LCD 48 that is a display device arranged below the touch panel 10 in addition to the above configuration, and further includes a RAM 38 and a ROM 40 that are various memories. The RAM 38 temporarily stores the voting result. The voting result temporarily recorded in the RAM 38 is sent to the journal printer 30 and printed as will be described in detail later. The circuits and elements shown in these blocks are connected to a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 36. The CPU 36 operates according to a program stored in advance in the ROM 40 or the flash memory 42 and performs necessary control. The CPU 36 has a functional part as an I / O controller for controlling data input / output inside or outside.
[0017]
The voting terminal 1 in FIG. 1 is provided with a printer window 12. Inside the printer window 12, as shown in FIG. 5, a journal printer 30 for printing on a roll paper 20 as a predetermined printing medium is attached. The journal printer 30 includes a supply reel 22 that supplies the roll paper 20, a take-up reel 24 that winds the roll paper 20, guide rollers 26 and 28 that guide the roll paper 20, and a printing unit that prints on the roll paper 20. 29.
[0018]
In FIG. 5, the above-described printer window 12 is provided as a through hole in the exterior portion 16 constituting the casing of the voting terminal 1. A transparent block member 18 is attached inside the printer window 12. As the block material 18, for example, a synthetic resin molded product such as acrylic or a plate material having a sufficiently thick plate pressure and not easily broken can be used. The block material 18 is light transmissive so that the elector can read the printed content on the roll paper 20 therethrough.
[0019]
In the present embodiment, the print on the roll paper 20 is configured to be directly visible to the elector through the block member 18. However, the roll paper 20 cannot be seen directly from the printer window 12. May be displayed on the printer window 12 via a prism or mirror. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of print contents on the roll paper 20. As shown in FIG. 6, the name of the election and the name of the voted candidate are printed. In addition, the term “election” in the present invention is not limited to the original election, but the national examination of the Supreme Court judge, a referendum for each local government, and a national-level referendum system in the future. Including such a system.
[0020]
As shown in FIG. 6, in addition to printing characters, the content expressed by the printed characters can be converted into a barcode and printed on a part of roll paper 20 as a printing medium. This printing can be performed by the printing unit 29, or a printing unit dedicated to barcodes may be provided. If the voting results are recorded with a bar code, when voting results are audited after the election, it can be read at high speed using a bar code reader. Moreover, it is also possible to adopt a configuration using an OCR font so that characters can be read at high speed by an optical character reader (OCR).
[0021]
Next, the operation of the CPU 36 of the voting terminal 1 will be described with reference to FIG. When the voting terminal 1 is in a state in which voting can be accepted, a voting start screen is displayed in step S1 to prompt the elector to insert a voting card into the voting card insertion unit 11. If it is confirmed in step S2 that a voting card has been inserted, a list of candidates standing for the election is displayed in step S3. Next, when it is confirmed in step S4 that the candidate has been selected, a confirmation guide for the selected content is displayed in step S5. Next, when confirmation by the elector is recognized in step S6, the voting result is written in the RAM 38, the flash memory 42, and the memory card 44 in step S7, and then the voting result is read from the RAM 38 and printed by the journal printer 30 in step S8. In step S9, it is determined whether there is an unvoted item in another election. If there is no unvoted election, the process goes to step S10, waits for a predetermined time, executes the paper feed (winding) of the roll paper 20 of the journal printer 30 to move the printed portion out of the printer window 12, and the other person Prevent recognition of voting results. Thereafter, the end of voting is displayed after displaying the end of voting.
[0022]
The journal printer 30 has a motor (not shown) as driving means for driving the take-up reel 24. When the vote of one elector is completed, the roll paper 20 is loaded as described in step S10 in FIG. When the next elector or another person accesses the voting terminal 1 by winding up a predetermined distance, the voting result of the previous elector is not displayed but a blank state is displayed. When voting is sequentially performed in this way, the raw voting result of each elector is printed on the roll paper 20, and is recorded as a barcode, and is rolled up and stored in a roll state. That is, the take-up reel 24 and its drive means operate as storage means. It is also possible to print and record an identification number indicating a polling place or a voting terminal near the leading edge and / or the trailing edge of the roll paper 20. By recording such contents, management after taking out the roll paper from the voting terminal 1 becomes easy.
[0023]
Although the case where the journal printer 30 is provided in the voting terminal 1 has been described in the above embodiment, the journal printer 30 is not necessarily provided in the casing of the voting terminal 1. Therefore, the journal printer 30 and its interface can be configured as an external recording device that can be electrically connected to the voting terminal 1. In this case, the voting result is read from the RAM 38 of the voting terminal 1, and the voting result data read by the external recording device is received and printed by the journal printer 30. Even when the external recording apparatus is configured, it is preferable to provide the printer window 12 and the block member 18 as shown in FIG.
[0024]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, when an elector voted at a voting terminal used for electronic voting, the vote result is printed and the raw vote result is stored, and the printed content is shown to the elector. As a result, the election audit trail can be obtained and the elector can directly confirm the contents of the vote visually.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of an electronic voting terminal according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the electronic voting voting terminal shown in FIG. 1;
3 is an overall view of an electronic voting system in which the electronic voting terminal shown in FIG. 1 is used.
4 is a flowchart showing the operation of a CPU inside the electronic voting terminal shown in FIG.
5 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration in the vicinity of a journal printer inside the electronic voting terminal shown in FIG.
6 is a diagram showing an example of recorded contents printed by the journal printer of FIG. 5. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Voting terminal for electronic voting 10 Touch panel (voting acceptance means)
11 Voting card insertion section 12 Printer window (composing display means together with block material 18)
18 Block material 20 Roll paper (printing medium)
22 Supply reel 24 Take-up reel (storage means)
29 Printing section (printing means)
30 Journal printer 32 Card reader 36 CPU
38 RAM
40 ROM
42 Flash memory (recording means)
44 Memory card (recording means)
46 Communication interface 48 LCD (display device)

Claims (6)

An electronic voting terminal provided in a polling place that accepts votes electronically,
Voting acceptance means for accepting electronic votes so that electors can select and vote for candidates,
A recording means for electronically or magnetically recording an electronic voting result received by the voting reception means on a storage medium;
Printing means for printing the voting result on a printing medium;
Display means for displaying the vote result printed on the print medium so that the elector can visually confirm;
Storage means for storing the print medium as an audit trail of voting;
A voting terminal for electronic voting.   The display means includes a window provided in the voting terminal, and an object that closes the window so that the elector cannot touch the printing medium located inside the window and transmits light. The voting terminal for electronic voting according to claim 1.   The voting terminal for electronic voting according to claim 1, further comprising printing means for printing the voting result as a barcode on the printing medium. A voting accepting unit that is provided in a polling place that accepts voting electronically and accepts electronic voting so that an elector can select and vote, and electronic voting results accepted by the voting accepting unit are stored. A voting result recording device electrically connectable to a voting terminal for electronic voting having a recording means for electronically or magnetically recording on a medium,
Means for receiving the voting result as electronic data from the voting terminal;
Printing means for printing the received voting result on a printing medium;
Display means for displaying the vote result printed on the print medium so that the elector can visually confirm;
Storage means for storing the print medium as an audit trail of voting;
Voting result recording device having.   The display means includes a window provided in the voting terminal, and an object that closes the window so that the elector cannot touch the printing medium located inside the window and transmits light. The voting result recording apparatus according to claim 4.   6. The voting result recording apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a printing unit that prints the voting result as a barcode on the printing medium.

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