US828816A - Voting-machine. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED AUG.14, 1906. W.' GLENN. VOTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 10. 1905.

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W. GLENN.

VOTINGMACHINE. APPLIGATION FILED JULY 1o, 1905.

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PATBNTBD AUG. 14, 1906. W. GLENN. I VOTING MACHINE. APPLIUATIOH Hmm JULY 1o. 1905.

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NITED STATES :PATENT orinon verme-macnews.

pecication of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 14, 1906.

Application filed July 10, 1905. Serial No. 269.091.

Tc all whom, t may concern:

Be it knownthat I, WILiJAM GLENN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Mount Vernon, in the county of Linn and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Votingahiachines, of which the following is a specification. Y

This invention relates to voting-machines having va series of movable non-interlocked vote-indicators correspondinU in number to the numberl of persons to lvbeelected and counters o1' registers tocoo'perate therewith, the vote-indicators being placed in voting position with relation to .the registers by movement of the indicatorslbodily along the ballot-frame carrying them.

The 4full nature of the invention will clearly appear from the description .and -claims following, reference being hadto `the drawings forming a part of this specification.

In the practical application of the princi-- ple stated above the embodiment of it may assume a great diversity of form and type. For the purposes of this application I have shown a circular type as the simplest embodiment of my invention,v though in practice I prefer a yrectangular form of machine. (Not shown.)

In the drawings which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a view of the circular or dial type of machine as seen from the standpoint of the voter in arranging his ballot. Fig. 2 is a detail of one of the voteindicators. 'Fi .3 is a view from the opposite side thereo with successive parts broken away 'to show the mechanism Within. The various planes of breakage will be evident by reference to Fig.,l4which is a cross-section of vthe home section.

the machine, or rather a half of it, on the independent-ticket side in the line a I) of Fig. 3, and Afurther reference to/ `Fig. 5, which 1s a similar section in the line cd of Fig. 3. Fig. 6 is a fragmentary side view showing the linking of the ballot-frame with the ring'which moves it in and out by a partial rotation.

Referring now to Fig; 1, the numeral 1 designates a suitable frame on legs 2 and supporting a dial which is divided into radial sections comprising various party-tickets, an independent ticket, and a vacant .section into which the indicatorsare returned after voting and which may for convenience be called This dial is formed of a series of concentric rings, the outer one, .3, being used for artyeticket titles and the ring Within it, 4, ta ing the names of the various electoral tickets. The next series of rings 5 is used for various oiiices, plural and single. The innermost ring 6 and its companion disk 7 areused for questions. This arrangement is of course conventional and not vital.' Between these rings, which are separated therel for, run the various vote-indicators 8. Cen# tral to each ring is a separating-ring 9, and on the inner side is another'series of rings similar to those on the face of the machine and numbered 10. In the space between these rings is mounted the indicator 8, the body or stem of which may be simply a stud projecting above the face of the machine high enough to be easily manipulated by the voter. The foot of the indicator where space admits of it is preferably extended at'S8L to make contact Withthe counter-stem hereinafter to be referred to and without any very careful placing of the indicator on the dial. To give the indicator a good long bearing in'its -raceway and also provide alittle tension-against` accidental slippage, the sides ofthe indicator are provided with rearwardlyextending springs 8b, which in the case of closely-assembled indicators, such as those for the electoral ticket, telescope' or nest, as shown in Fig. 2.

Behind this dial and separated from it by suitable connecting-posts 11 or `the like is plate '12, pierced at suitable points to take the countenstems 13, which actuate the counters' '14 by an endwise motion thereof. Thesestems have a cross-pin 13a above the plate, vas shown in Fig. 4, by which they are returned to n'ormal position. The counter may be of any approved type and need not be described. It may be noted, however, that for convenience the counters are best ar-A also provided with an internal spirai rib 18? to engage a hand-lever lhereinafterto be described. Over thisy drum `is mounted another drum 19,to Whichjtheballot-frame is.

secured, this frame 'including the dial above described. This drum also has an opening roo ITO

19a at one side, within which is a bridge 18C, forming a part of the other drum. In the center of the ballot-frame drum is a hub 19h to take a shaft 20 turning freely inr said hub. At the outer end of this shaft is mounted and made fast a lever 21, which serves as a sweep to move up indicators in'voting a straight ticket and for resetting them in normal position. At the other end of this shaft is a short lever 22 to engage the spiral rib above referred to and turning freely on the shaft. Outside it is a collar23, and on the other side of it is a c linder 24, made fast to the shaft.`

Between t is cylinder and the hub of the ballot-frame drum i's loosely mounted an arm 25 similar in the main to the straight-ticket lever and held from slipping` on the shaft endwise by a shoulder' 2()a of the shaft on one side and the cylinder on the other. From the foregoing it will be evident that the turn- .ing of the lever 22 will move the shaft and all its connections endwise. At the back side of the home section is a barrier 2t`a,.which limits the movement of the indicators in either direction. Otherwise they are free to slide in their raceways entirely around the dial. The straight-ticketl lever and its companion arm 25 are specially constructed so as to serve together as a classifier. Otherwise the arm might be dispensed with and the straightticket lever be a simple straight arm to engage the upper ends of the indicators. This special construction will now be described, Along both the straight-ticket lever .and the lclassifier-arm, coinciding with the indicators,

are mounted adjustable fingers 27 and 23, respectively. The latter may bo simple straight strips adjustable transversely of the ban-asv by thumb-screws 29 vand angle-plates 30, attached to the side of the bar, as clearly shown on the straight-ticket lever in Fig. 5. In the case of the former, however, it is desirable to extend the fingers at their inner ends with' feet 27a, or so many'of them asmay beneeessary, in order that their contact with the indicatorsmay be suehas to push the indica.- tors to an approximately central position with respect to the dial-sections, or, in other words, to voting' position. The fingers, as shown in Fig. 5, are slotted at 27b to take the thumb-screws above referred to. These fingers may enter the raceways when. the straight-ticket lever is drawn inwardly. The classifier-bar 25 lies across but under the front line of the home section of theballotframe andis held to this radial line in some simple way, by a stud 31, fast in the couner-fraine and engaging a hole 25*1 in the bar. it will be seen that the extreme inner one of the straight-ticket iingers is shown with its foot the lowest., so as to engage the questionindicator. Correspondingly the same finger on the classifier-bar is set the lowest. This permits the straight-ticket lever to moveforwardly only the question-indicator, as might be the sole right of a woman voter for example. The next pair of iingersis shown most elevatedV permitting a vote as to ythe whole ticket except township clerk, a 'right reserved for residents of an electorate outside a lcity corporation. but voting in a city precinct. For general voting the straight-ticket lever is completely depressed, carrying with it the classifier step-bar, the fingers of which are set lto intercept at the foot the indicators to be excluded 1n any case. It is supposed, of course, that the classifier is set at the proper ,place by one of the judges of election as the voter is about to enter the booth. The counters register only as their stems arepushed inwardly backwardly by contact with the feet of indicators. These are carried toward the counters by movement of the whole ballot-frame, which ma move back and forth but not turn on its central bearing'.

This movement may be effected in variousy ways, of'course,'a sim le device being a ring 32 mounted to turn a imited distance. in the counter-frame, as by mounting on antifriction-rollers 33, and links 34 connecting the ring with the ballot-frame. The turning ofthe ring has the .effect of moving the ballot-frame in or out, as the case may be. The simplest act of voting will now be to. move out from the homel section one or more indicators 'to chosenposition, push back the ballot-frame, and then return the frame and the indicators vto normal osition to preserve thesecrecy of the vote, a 1 these operations being manually performed. -If thev voter wishesL to vote a straight ticket, he has simply to move the lever to thel roper party-section, register the vote as be ore, 4and then restore the ballotfram'e'to normal position and by a backward sweep of the lever reset the indicators in. the' home section, so that his vote is secret. It

is desirable, however, that as many of these operations as practicable be performed mec anically or automatically, and these further devices will now be described. It is also necessary to prevent his' repeating and mechanism for this purpose is also involved.

-A simple device for automatically restoring the straight-ticket lever to initial position is along coil-spring 35, attached to one side of the cylinder 24 and at the' other end to the ring 32. The pull of this springl tends to bring. the lever to primary positionwhichever way the lever may be turned, as will be evident.

l The voter may be allowed to manipulate the indicators at will, and the construction is such as to allow him to do this freely. He must, however, be restricted to but one impulse of the ballot-frame for counting. Mechanism for this purpose will now be described. It is to be said, however, that it is not necessary to my invention that thecountingbe done by a simultaneous movement of the indicators moved to voting position, as the in- IOC essere vcntion contemplates as well the method of voting by direct action of the separate indicators to actuate the vcounters as moved to voting position, in which type of machine the recalling of the indicator would turn back the counter and cancel the vote.

Referring now to Figs. 3, 4, and 5, it will be seen that on the bridge 18" is pivoted a pair of pawls 36 and 37, engaging corresponding shoulders 24 and 24" of the cylinder 24. These paw'ls have mutuallyengaging shout ders 36 and 37?, normally separated a little distance, but adapted toreturn either to normal position by a contrary movement of the other. The pawl 36 connects by a slip-joint rod 38 with a bell-crank 39, engaging thering 32. The movement of this ring in the direction indicated by the arrow will of course disengage thc pawl, permitting the backward or resetting movement of the straight-ticket lever. The other pawl connects b a similar rod 40 with a similar lever 41. T is lever is actuated by one of the judges of election from the side of the machine opposite the voter while in the booth, (for convenience the latter I is called the front side,) but before he enters the booth. This unlocks the straightticket lever for forward movement and at the same time unlocks the entrance gate or barrier, as will be described presently. Non mallyr the ballot-framc shifter is locked by a gravity-pawl 42 engaging a stud 32 in the ring 32. For convenience in construction this pawl is secured to a rock-shaft 43, which also has another similar pawl 44, serving as a trip-lever for the former pawl. Another one projecting at another angle 45, performs the same function, but by engagement with the stud 32, A stop 46 limits the movement of the pawls,vand a gravity-arm 47 holds the pawls in either position as it swings ast its center of gravity. To the outer en of the straight-ticket lever is attached a nger 48, passing down through the outer groove of the dial and adapted to engage the pawl 44 as the leverk moves forward to voting` positon and swing it so that it passes out of the ngers path' by gravity. This disengages the pawl locking the ring 32,v so that it ma be actuated to shift the ballot-frame. l/V en now the ring 32 is moved forwardly, the stud 329l throws the gravity-pawl back and at the same time brings the pawl 37 into engagement, locking Athe straight-ticket lever against forward movement,y and thus' prevents repeating. The voter can now move the reset ting-lever only (the straight-.ticket lever with the backward sweep) and must do so before he' can get out of the booth, as the gate is locked behind him. The gate-lock and its connections will now be described. A t one' side of the machine is pivoted a gate or barrier 49, provided with a spring 50 or the like to close it automatically. The gate has a sector 51l adapted to engage a stop-block 52 on a gravitybar 53. This bar connects with one armof a bell-crank 54,`to the other arm of which is connected a loose'chain 55, attached at its other end to the cylinder24. ,Adjacent to the stop-block is a hook 56 to engage the stop-block when the gravity-bar or trip-ba'r, as it may be more briefly called, is elevated. 'On this hook is a pawl 57 'in thev path of the sector. The action of this part of the mechanism will now be seen Y. When the gate for him, or rather unlocks the. gate, by raising a lever 58, engaging a shaft 59, to which is attached the lever-41. The raising oflever 58 lifts the trip-bar by engagement with a stud 60 to a point when the hook 56 may fall into engagement with the stopblock 52. The gate is now unlocked for the voter to pass in. As he opens it the sector 51 engages the pawl 57 and the trip-bar falls a little Wa the stop-block resting on the sector. W ien the gate closes behind him, the trip-bar falls still farther and again locks it'.v The advantage of the pawl 57 instead of a mere tailpiece on the hook is to allow the sec-A tor to swing back without catching the hook. The gate being locked, the voter is compelled to unlock it, which can only be done by turning back the resetting-lever. This winds the chain on the cylinder and near the end of the levers movement takes up the slackin the chain, which again lifts the trip-bar 18, and it is again caught by the hook.

My device for recording the vote for independent candidates is herein considered only as applied to this embodiment of the invention. Tt is more particularlyv shown and claimed in a separateapplicat'ion for patent to be filed hereafter.

The independent-ticket mechanism embodies a new type, in that a continuous web of paper may be used, the movement may be regular with each impulse of the machine, and covers to mask the Writing-spaces are not required. instead thereof, regardless of thenumber of names that may be written, the proper votes are' checked mechanically by virtue of the action of a non-interlocked ent-ticket section of the machine is a perfou rated plate 61, which may be a door or panel in the front ci the machine, for convenience inl mounting thepaper-roll 62, threading it between the feed-rolls 63, and connectin with'the takemp roll 64.. Back of this plate is the tablet-platel 65,-'across the front face of which the aper runs. A re ular motion forward wit each voting impufse of the machine ise'lfected by a ratchet 66 and a springpa'wl 67 on an oscillating arm 68, secured to a rock-shaft 69. Anotherarm or lever on this shaf't() connects with the ring 32 by a link 71. At the front end of' this shaft is a lever 72, whicl'i is used by the voter in 'shifting the hallot-frame to register his vote.

the voter presents himself, the opens vote-indicator. Adjacent to. the independ-vr IOO Leading out from points in theindependentticket section corresponding to the counters in the party-ticket sections are levers 73, which by reason of thev peculiar arrangement of the counters are most conveniently set in banks at different levels. The inner ends of these levers are provided with stems answering to the counter-stems and numbered 74 for reference. The fulcrums of these levers 75 rest on-zthe counter-frame. To "the other end of each lever is attached a -puncturingspxur 7610i' the like to serve as amarker in c ecking the legal vote. It willbe seen that these-markers only operate when indicators arev brought into the independent-ticket section inthe same manner as in theother scctionsi Under this-system only the checked names are counted in making up the returns. At somev suitable pointthe machine is provided'with a total-vote counter 7 7 connecting with the counter-actuating ring by a link or trip-rod 7'8,

' The term indicator as herein employed will be understood torefer to the movable 2 5 part-slide, button, key, or the like-manipulated by the voter in arranging his ballot. The term non-interlocked p is used as a convenient generic term to express the fact that the indicators have complete freedom of movement Within their-respective compartments and that as there is a single indicator Jfor each person4 to be e1ected,vas distinguished from each candiate nominated, and as all indicators must be used. in a full vote there need be no mechanism to lock out some indicaters to prevent unlawful voting.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

' 1. Ina voting-machine havingI offices arrangedin plura -candidate rows, a series of registers spaced accordin to candidates in saidrows, and correspon ingly-spaced indicators adapted'for movement tov voting positionlengthwise off said-rows each independently shittable to-different positions for different parties or candidates.

'2. In a voting-machine arranged vin oiiicerows,the combination of a plurality of voteindicators in each multicandidate office-row corres ending to thel number of persons to be electe to such office each independently shiftable to different positions for diderent parties or candidates, and a frame therefor confining the shifting' of said indicators eX- cept longitudinally of said rows.

' 3. In a voting-machine arranged in officerows, the combination of a series of registers correspondin to the candidatesin saidofce-rows, ap urality of vote-indicators corresponding tothe number' of persons to be elected tosuch oflice each independently shiftable to` dierent positions for diierent sessie registers, and a trame confining the shifting oi said indicators except longitudinally of said rows to any desired selection of registers.

4. In a voting-machine adapted for pluralcandidate voting, and grouping the candidates in party Candidates in oflice-rows, a series of' registers spaced according tosaid arrangement of candidates, rows of indicators spaced to correspond with the registers, and meansy for moving the indicators lengthwise of said rows.

5. In a yoting-machine arranged in ollicerows, the combination of a plurality of voleindica'tors in each multicandidate office-row corresponding to the number of persons vto he elected to such oi'iice each independently shiftable to different positions t'or diilerent parties or candidates; a frame therefor coniningthe shiftingof the indicators except longitudinally of said lrows, and means for shifting said indicators simultaneously.

, 6. In a voting-machine adaptedtor pluralcandidate voting, and having registers arranged in party-columns and ottico-rows, thecombination of a plurality of vote-indicators in each plural-candidate row, and so spaced as to be in operative relation with all the registers in a party-column, one indicator for each register, and means for shifting the plurality of indicators longitudinally ot said rows to any desired party-column.

y 7. In a voting-machine arranged in oflicerows, the combination of a-series ot' registers ,corresponding to the candidates in said officerows, a plurality' of vote-indicators corresponding to, the number of persons to be elected to such oflice each independently shiftable to different positions for different parties or candidates, spaced apart corresponding to the location of corresponding regis-ters, a frame confining the shifting of said indicators except longitudinally of said rows to any desired selection of registers, and means for shifting said indicators simultaneously.

"8. In a voting-machine, the combination with a ballot-frame suitably arranged as to ollices, vote-indicators movable in said trame, a straight-ticket sweep provided. with staggered fingers to engage' certain of said indicators, and a .staggered barrier coinciding with the sweep, to pre-vent the movement ot any but the selected indicators.

9. In a voting-machine having vote-indicators-grouped as to oiiices, the combination of a selective, adjustable straight-ticket sweep, and a coordinate stop or barrier to lock the indicators not so selective by the sweep.

10. In a voting-machine having vote-indicators grouped as to otlices, the combination of a selective straight-ticket sweep, a coparties or.- candidates, spaced apart correordinate stopv or barrier to lock the indicators Spending to the location of 'corresponding inot so selected, and a connection between IOO IID

IAS

said sweep and barrier whereby the may be moved concurrently into or out 0 alternative engagement Withthe indicators.

l 1. In a voting-machine, having a series of vote-indicators, a series of counters coperating therewith7 and means for actuating them, the` combination oi'v 'a means lof independent voting positively advancing one space at each registering operation, and having an aperture for each independent vote to be cast,

and a checking device cooperating With one or more indicators when placed in proper position and out of .register lWith the counters.

12.v In' a voting-machine, the combination with a series of counters for regular candidates, a series of checking devices 'for marking independent votes to be counted, and a series of vote-indicators, each freely movable into and out fof operative relation alternatively With respect to said counters and each registering operation, covered bya casv ing having an aperture for receivingone name for each checking device, and marked at each aperture by afcorresponding checking device when in operative relation.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

WiLLIAM GLENN. Witnesses;

F.`J. RUBOQEK, J. M.ST.*JOHN.

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