US621634A - Setts - Google Patents

Description

no; 62l,634.

Patented Mar. 2|, I899. J. J. CUNNINGHAM & E. H. MULLEN.

B A L L O T.

(Applicatiozi filed Feb. 1, 1898.)

(No Model.)

FIB 4 WITNESSES- luv NTDRS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES J. CUNNINGHAM AND EUGENE H. MULLEN, OF LYNN, MASSACHU- SETTS, ASSIGNORS TO JOSIAH Q. BENNETT, TRUSTEE,'0F CAMBRIDGE,

MASSACHUSETTS; i

iBALLOT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 621,634, dated March 1899. Application filed February 1, 1898. Serial No. 668,782. (No model.)

To all whom it, may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMEs J. CUNNINGHAM and EU GENE H. MULLEN, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ballots; and .We do hereby declare the following tofbe a full, clear, and exact description of the inventiomsuch as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

In Letters Patent of the United States No. 595,669, issued to us December 21, 1897, we have illustrated anddescribed an improved apparatus for registering votes requiring for its operation what We have termed in said patent a perforated stencil-ballot, which controls the operation of the markers on the movable tally-sheets forming part of said apparatus and which is made by the voter at the voting-booth from the official ballot by punching a hole in said ballot opposite the name of each candidate for whom he desires to cast a vote. It will be noted from the description of said apparatus given in said patent that to secure its successful operation the perforations intended to indicate a vote for each candidate must be in substantially the same location upon the several ballots cast for such candidate, so that the marking device can strike through such perforations onto the movable tally-sheet and make its registering marks in a line or column thereon in position to be readily and accurately counted. To secure the above-suggested result, as described in said patent, the official ballot is adjusted in a case or carrier and given to the voter, who takes it to the voting-booth and with the assistance of a special apparatus provided in said booth, as fully described in said patent, makes the perforations required to indicate his vote for the candidates he selects, and the ballot so perforated, with its carrier, is then placed in the machine, which is operated to register the vote.

The object of the present invention is to simplify the above-described operation and to do away with the special apparatus required to form the stencil-ballot from the ballot which is provided at the polling-place.

To the above end the present invention consists of an improved ballot comprising a main sheet or body portion and a perforated gagestrip, through theperforations in which the main sheet or body portion of the ballot is exposed.

The present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a plan view of a ballot embodying the same. Fig. 2 is an enlarged partial longitudinal section through the main sheet or body portion of the ballot and gage-strip, showing the same before the ballot is perforated to form the stencil-ballot. Fig. 3 is a partial cross-section, enlarged, showing the ballot after it has been perforated; and Fig. 4 is an endview of the ballot.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the several views.

Referring to-the drawings, A- represents the main sheet or body portion of the ballot, upon which the names of the several candidates are printed in columns in the usual manneras, for example, in the. blocks or spaces a. To the main sheet or body portion A is secured a gage-strip B, which extends longitudinally of the ballot along the column of names there on. In the guide-strip B are formed a series of perforations 6, arranged one opposite the name of each candidate, through which perforations the main sheet or body portion A is exposed. The gage-strip may conveniently consist of a strip of cardboard, thick paper, or other suitable material, which may be conveniently pasted or glued to the main sheet or body portion of the ballot. The perforation for each candidates name is in the same position on the gage-strip forming part of each ballot, and when the gage-strip is secured to the main sheet or body portion such perforations are brought to corresponding locations thereon. If more than one column of names is printed upon the main sheet or body portion A, a plurality of the gage-strips B is provided, one for each column of names.

In using our improved ballot the same is given to the voter at the polling-place in the usual manner, and he takes it to a booth and with a lead-pencil, blunt-pointed stick, or any convenient tool or implement that can be 100 passed through the perforations in the gagestrip punctures the main sheet or body portion A through such perforations in the gage strip B as are located opposite the names of the candidates for Whom he desires to vote. The ballot thus punctured forms a perforated stencil-ballot ready to be inserted in the voteregistering apparatus, the punctures forming perforations which by means of the gage-strips B have been made in the proper relative position to secure the successful and accurate operation of said apparatus.

Having thus described our invention and manner of using the same, We claim as novel

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