US891941A - Independent-vote mechanism for voting-machines. - Google Patents

Description

No. 891,941. PATENTED JUNE 30, 1908.

S. LOE.

INDEPENDENT VOTEMEGHANISM FOR VOTING MACHINES. APPLIUATION FILED JUNE 18,1906.

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.No. 891,941. PATENTED JUNE so, 1908. I

S. LOB.

INDEPENDENT VOTE MECHANISM FOR VOTING MACHINES. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 18,1906.

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THE NORRIS PETERS co., w snmmmv, B4 c.

No. 891.941 PATENTED JUNE'30, 1908.

8. LOB.

INDEPENDENT VOTE MECHANISM FOR VOTING MACHINES.

APPLIQATION FILED JUNE 18,1906.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

THE NORRIS PETERS cm, wasnuvaram-n. t.

SYVER LOE, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

INDEPENDENT-VOTE MECHANISM FOR VOTING-MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June so, 1908.

Application filed June 18, 1906. Serial No. 322,208.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SYVER Lon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful- Improvements in Independent-Vote Mechanism for Voting-Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to voting machines, and has for its especial object to provide an improved independent vote mechanism therefor for controlling the casting of ballots for parties not represented as nominees on any of the regular tickets.

T o the above ends the invention consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

Hitherto independent vote mechanisms have been provided which would, in a fairly satisfactory way, control the casting of independent votes for oflices to which but one candidate could be elected, but these prior independent vote mechanisms have been deficient when employed to control group voting, that is to say, where several parties may properly be elected to the same oflice'as, for instance, to the office of judge of the district court, where there may be say ten candidates and three parties to be elected to such offices.

Broadly stated, I haveovercome the defects of prior devices and meet all requirements of efiicient independent vote mechanism, by the provision of means whereby the independent vote ballots cast by the different voters are grouped together. These groups of independent vote ballots are secured in such packs or bundles, and should be dropped into a suitable receptacle, after being secured together, so that when they are counted the election judges will know which ballots have been cast together, or by a single voter, but can not determine by whom or by which par ticular voter the particular bundle or pack the ballots were cast. In this way, secrecy is maintained and at the same time an arrangement is provided whereby it is possible for the judges to determine whether or not any particular voter has cast more than one ballot for the same candidate, where it has been his privilege to cast one vote each for several of the different candidates. This construction and arrangement will more fully appear in the following description and the accompanying drawings which illustrate a voting machine having my improved independent vote mechanism incorporated therein.

In the accompanying drawings like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a view in front elevation with some parts broken away, showing a voting machine, and illustrating my improved independent vote mechanism applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken from front to rear of the machine, on the line a 00 of Fig. 1, some parts being broken away. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line 9: x of Fig. 2,some parts being broken away. Fig. 4 is a detail taken in section approximately on the line s x of Fig. 2, some parts being broken away and some parts being shown in full. Fig. 5 is a detail in section on the line $0 00 of Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a detail in vertical section taken approximately on the line 00 x of Fig. 3. Fig. 7 is a detail in horizontal section taken on the line 00% of Fig. 2 and Fig. 8 is a detail in section on the irregular line a m of Fig. 7

The mechanism of the machine is contained within a case or cabinet 1, the base 2 of which is shown as expanded and the front plate of which is provided with a plurality of vertically disposed channel-shaped ticket holders 3, adapted to hold the usual printed tickets 4. The machine illustrated in the drawings has its register actuating slides or keys arranged in vertical columns, and there is a column of these slides or keys appropriated to each political party, such as the Democratic and Republican parties, and one vertical column is appropriated to independent votes. The names of different candidates of the political parties appear on the respective tickets. Of course, this arrangement may be varied. For instance, the rows or columns of register actuating slides or keys might be horizontally disposed, ifdesired.

Inclosed within the case 1 is a skeleton frame work made up, as shown, of a plurality of vertically extended angle irons 5 and vertically spaced horizontally extended connecting brackets 6, which brackets are rigidly secured to the front plate of the case 1, at their forward ends.

Mounted in suitable bearings 7 secured to the bottom of the base 2 of the case, is a counter-shaft 8 that carries a bevel pinion 9 and eccentric 10. The pinion 9 meshes with the bevel gear 11 of a counter-shaft 12, which counter-shaft is mounted in suitable bearings within the base of the case, is extended from the rear toward the front of the machine, and at its projecting forward end is provided with an operating lever 13. The counter-shaft 12 carries a tappet or cam acting lug 14, the purpose of which will hereinafter appear.

The register actuating slides or keys of the machine are arranged in vertical columns, as before stated, and they are mounted to move from front to rear of the machine in suitable bearings afforded by the front plates of the case 1 and by the vertical bearing strips 15 secured to the brackets 6. In the present illustration, only a part of the complete ma chine being illustrated, I have shown but two columns of these slides or keys, the one column being assigned to the Republican party, and the other to independent votes. The slides which are assigned to the Republican party are indicated by the character 16, while the slides which are assigned to independent votes are indicated by the character 17. As shown, the keys 16 are provided, at their forwardly projecting ends, with perforated linger pieces 16 and the slides are provided, at their forwardly projecting ends, with knob-like finger pieces 17 by means of which finger pieces the said keys may be drawn forward from their normal positions shown in the drawin s, into socalled set positions. Furthermore, the said slides or keys 16 and 17 are provided, at their rear ends, with wide-faced racks 18, shown as formed by cutting parallel slits therein. The slides 16 and 17 are further provided with shoulders 19. To simultaneously restore all of the set slides or keys to normal positions, so-called restoring bars 20 are provided. There is one of these restoring bars for each vertical column of slides or keys, and each restoring bar is connected to the frame work of the machine by a pair of parallel links 21. The said restoring bars engage the shoulders 19 of the respective keys when upward swinging movement is imparted thereto. This upward swinging movement of said restoring bar is effected by a chain 22 which is attached to the lower end thereof, and to the eccentric 1.0 on the shaft 8, and the intermediate portion of which runs over a suitable guide sheave 23 (shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2) on one of the angular uprights 5.

For each. horizontally alined row of keys or slides 1617 there is an extensible lock bar or shaft made up of a plurality of nonrotary sections 24 and rotary coupling shafts 25. The coupling shaft 25 between the abutting ends of the shaft sections 2 1 are provided with pinions 26, and their oppositely projecting ends are reversely threaded and engage right and left threaded seats inthe said non-rotary sections 2 1. The non rotary sections 24 are angular in cross section and engage correspondingly formed seats in the flanges of the bars 5, so that they are free to slide therethrough but can not rotate therein. The pinions 26 engage one with each of the wide-faced racks 18. For the purposes of the present illustration it should be assumed that the right hand shal't section 24, as shown in Fig. 3, is fixed against endwise as well as against rotary move ments, although in the actual machine the fixed section 24 will actually be free toward the right. An adjustable stop plunger 27 extends to the left from and has screwthreaded engagement with the left hand section 24. This plunger 27 works through a perforation in the projecting flange of the left hand angle iron uprigl'it 5 and is provided with a stop collar 28 which engages with said bar to limit the distending move ment of the extensible shaft or bar made up of the sections 24 and 25 and plunger 27. The device just described affords a suitable means for limiting the number of votes that may be cast for the particular office. For offices to which but one candidate may be elected, such for instance as governor, the distensible lock bars described, in themselves, a'fford complete vote limiting devices, and in such instance the stop collar 28 of the plunger 27 is normally set one step of movement away from the flange of the cooperating stop bar 5, so that a forward movement into a set position of any one of the slides or keys of the cooperating horizontal line or series, will bring the said collar 28 into engagement with the cooperating bar 5 and thus lock in normal position the other slide or slides of the said horizontal row.

The mechanism so far described is identical, or substantially identical, with that disclosed in my prior patent No. 804,962, of November 21, 1905, entitled voting machine. It will, however, be understood that the improved and novel independent vote mechanism hereinafter described and broadly claimed. is capable of application to voting mechanisms of various types and designs, and hence, is not limited to use in connection with the particular mechanism above described. For group voting, additional mechanism should be provided, such, for instance, as that illustrated in. my said prior patent. The slides or keys 16 which are assigned to the Republican party and, in fact, all other keys or slides that are assigned to any definite political party, each actuates a cooperating register which may be of any suitable construction, so far as the present invention is concerned, but which would preferably be of the form and arrangement illustrated and claimed in my prior patent above identified. In Fig. 2 the said indicators are indicated in part, and in one' instance in full, and are indicated as entireties by the numeral 29, it being only necessary to here state that said registers are not actuated under outward or forward movements of the keys or slides 16, but are operated under return movements thereof to normal positions.

As a means for preventing return movements of the keys or slides from working positions, they are provided, at their interme diate portions, with ratchet teeth 30 that are engaged by retaining pawls 31 pivotally mounted on a fixed vertically extended channel bar 32. A pawl releasing bar 33 is mounted to slide on the channel bar 32 and is connected to the several overlying pawls by slot and pin connections 34. Rigidly secured to each restoring bar 20 is a lifting finger 35, the body portion of which is curved downward and the rear end of which normally underlies a lug 36 on the pawl releasing bar 33. The lifting finger 35 is so formed that under the initial upward and rearward movement of the restoring bar 20, it will lift the bar 33, thereby releasing the pawls 31 and permitting the keys or slides to be returned to normal positions by said restoring bar. This key or slide restoring movement of the bar 20 and, in fact, of all of such restoring bars employed in the machine, should take place after a voter has moved into set position all those keys or slides that represent the votes that he wishes to cast; and such movement is accomplished by a movement of the operating lever 13 from the position shown by full into the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1.

Independent. vote mechanism.The inde pendent vote ballots are preferably, although not necessarily, made in the form of disks 37 of heavy paper or other suitable material and upon which the name of the independent candidate and the office to which the voter desires the said candidate elected, may be written. These independent vote ballots or disks 37 are adapted to be dropped into the machine through a receiving slot 38, shown as formed in the upper forward portion of the expanded base 2 of the machine case 1, at the left of the independent vote keys or slides 17 Secured within the base of the machine case, and depending below the entrance slot 38, is a guide hopper 39, the front wall of which, at its lower extremity, is notched at 40 and is rigidly secured to. an anvil block 41, which anvil block is rigidly secured to the machine case and provided with a clearance notch 42 that alines with the said notch 40. At its upper portion, the hopper 39 is provided with a short guide plate 43 that depends from the outer edge of the slot 38. A ballot supporting shelf 44 is intermediately hinged to the lower end of the front plate of the guide hopper 39.

toward the front of the machine,

The rearwardly projecting portion of this supporting shelf 44, and also the hinge thereof, are cut away in line with the said clearance notches 40 and 42. The forwardly projecting portion of said shelf is much heavier than the rear portion, so that the said rear portion is normally held upward against the sides of the hopper 39 in position to hold a plurality of ballots or disks 37 that are deposited thereon, as shown in Fig. 2. A flat guide spring 45 is secured to the upper portion of the hopper 39 and stands substantially in the position shown in Fig. 2. As shown, the bottom of the machine case is provided with a large passage 46 directly below the anvil block 41 and supporting shelf 44. Supported by the machine case below the passage 46 thereof, is a boX or receptacle 47 that is adapted to receive the ballots 37 V after they have been secured in bunches or packs by means hereinafter described.

Secured to and supported by the frame brackets 6 is a pin magazine made up of two vertical channel strips 48. The bottom of this pin magazine is normally closed by a pin delivery wheel 49 that is carried by a short shaft 50 journaled in bearings afforded by the depending portions of the channel strips 48. This pin delivery wheel is provided with peripheral, notches or pin receiving pockets 51, as shown eight in number. A segmental guide plate 52 is secured to the lower portion of the pin magazine and closely follows the periphery of the wheel 49 at one side nearly to the bottom thereof.

Secured to the rear end of the shaft 50 of the pin delivery wheel 49 is a ratchet wheel 53 (see Figs. 2 and 5). On the left hand bracket 6 is an upwardly projecting lug 54 to which is pivoted a pawl lever 55, which lever extends transversely of the keys or slides 17 and is provided with a pawl 56 that operates upon the said ratchet wheel 53, as best shown in Fig. 5. ing pawl which is pivoted to the said right hand bracket 6 and operates upon the ratchet wheel 53. A coiled spring 58 yieldingly connects the depending free ends of the pawls 56 and 57.

Mounted to move from front toward the rear of the machine in rigidly secured upright bearing strips 59, is a ballot dropping slide 60. This slide 60 is provided with a depending beveled nose latch hook 61 that normally engages the pawl lever 55 and holds the same raised, as shown by full lines in Fig. 5. The forward portion of said slide 60 is bifurcated, so that it straddles or embraces the pin magazine 48, and the extreme forward end thereof bears against the depending guide plate 43 and stands in position to support the ballot disk 37 which is partly inserted through the slot 38 of the case. A light coiled spring 62, attached to the slide 60 and to one of the guide strips 59 yieldingly holds the said slide in its most forward position, shown in Fig. 2. The free end of the pawl lever 55 directly overlies the tappet lug or arm 14 of the lever actuated rock shaft 12, so that it will be engaged and raised thereby, as hereinafter described.

The shoulders 19 of all of the independent vote keys or slides 1.7 engage with a vertically disposed rocking blade 63 which is pivoted on a shaft 64 supported by the upper and lower brackets ('3. A lever 65 is intermediately pivoted on the shaft 64 and at one end is attached to the slide (50 by a slot and pin connection 66. The other end of said lever (55 is yieldingly connected to the rocking blade 63 by a nutted. bolt 67 which is passed through said blade and lover and has a coiled spring 68 interposed between the nut thereof and the end of the said lever. With this arrangement, whenever any one of the slides or keys 17 is moved forward, the blade 63 will also be moved. forward, and, through the lever 65, the slide 60 will be positively forced rearward; but under return movements of the keys or slides 17, the blade (53 will be forced rearward and caused to clear the shoulders 19 without requiring movement of the lever 65 or slide 60.

The pins 69 which are contained within the magazine 48 and which are delivered one after the other by the wheel 49 olf from the lower end of the segmental guide plate 52, are caught and held by a combined pin holding and driving device made up, shown, of a pair of upright arms 70 and 71 that are pivotally supported at their lower ends to a hearing 72 on the bottom of the machine ease. The most forward arm 71 is provided with a crotch 73 at its upper end, which receives the sharpened forward end of the pin, and. the rearmost arm 70 is provided, at its upper end, with a pocket 74 that is adapted to receive the blunt rear end of the pin. A pin thus held is shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2. The two arms 7 0 and 71 are yieldingly connected, as shown, by a Ushaped spring 75 attached to said. arm 71 and. ieldingly pressing rearward on said arm 70. The numeral 76 indicates a toggle lever, the forward arm of which is pivotally connected to the upper end of the driving arm 70, and. the rear arm of which is pivotally connected at 77 to a fixed. base of reaction a'fl'orded by one of the upright angle bars 5. The intermediate joint of the toggle 76 normally rests upon an adjustable stop 7 S, and its own weight normally holds the same in the position shown in. F 2, and thereby holds the arms 70 and 71 also in the position shown in Fig. 2. A chain 7 9 which is attached at its rear end to the counter-shaft 8, runs over a guide wheel 80 and its depending forward end is attached to the intermediate joint of the toggle 76. A tripping hook 81 is pivotally attached to the upper portion of the. pin driving arm 70, and its hooked forward end is adapted to engage with the upturned forward edge of the pivoted supporting shelf 44, when the said toggle is straightened out.

The numeral 82 indicates a ballot packer which is in the form of a lever that is intermediately pivoted to the front bar of the magazine 48. The upper end of this packing .lever 82 projects upward. through the passage in the forward end of the slide 60 and stands in position to be engaged by the transverse forward extremity 60 of said slide, when the latter is moved rearward. The depending portion of this packing lever 82 is adapted to spring or yield when thrown against the bal- .lot disks 37 that are held upon the supporting shelf 44 as shown in. Fig. 2.

opera/floraThe operation of the independent vote mechanism above described is as follows: Normally, the parts stand as shown by full lines in several views of the drawings. After a voter has pulled out such of the keys or slides as represent the votes that he wishes to cast, he moves the operat ing lever 13 from the position indicated by full lines into the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, in a manner n'eviously set forth, and thereby restores all of the setslides or keys to normal positions, under which movement the registers of the regular vote mechanism are actuated. If no one of the independent vote slides or keys ]7 has been moved into a set position, the ballot dropping slide 60 will not have been moved, and the pawl lever 55 will remain locked in its normal elevated position shown in. Fig. 5, so that when the tappet lug or arm 14 is moved from the position indicated in full lines into the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 5 under the above noted movement of said operating lever 13, there will be no action whatever of the independent vote mechanism. In casting independent votes, the voter writes the candidates name and office upon one of the blank ballots 37 and deposits the same in the slot 38, as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and He then pulls out the independent vote slide or key 17 which is horizontally alined with the indication on the independent vote ticket of the olllce to which it is desired to elect the particular candidate. Then the slide 60is moved rearward, the p artially deposited ballot 37 is dropped onto the supporting shelf 44 and is pressed forward against the front x 'all of the hopper 39, by the packing lever 82. The voter repeats the above operation for eaelnoflice to which he desires to elect an independent candidate. when the slide 60 is moved rearward by the forward movement of the first used independent vote slide or key, the hook lug 61 thereof is removed from under the pawl lever 55, and the latter is dropped into the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 5. The ratchet wheel 53 has the same number of teeth as the pin delivery wheel, 49 has pockets 51. Hence, if one or more independent vote keys or slides have been moved forward into set positions, and the pawl lever 55 dropped into its dotted line position, it is evident that when the operating lever 13 is moved from its full line position to its dotted line position (Fig. 1), in the act of restoring all of the set keys or slides into normal positions, the tappet lug or arm 14will raise thepawl lever 55 back into its normal position, thereby imparting a oneeighth movement to the ratchet wheel 53 and pin delivery wheel 49 and causing the latter to deliver a pin 69 to the upper ends of the arms 7 O and 71, where the said pin will be held in position to be driven through the pack or bunch of independent vote ballots 37 which are assembled on the supporting shelf 44 and against the anvil block 41.

When the pawl lever 55 is raised by the tappet arm 14, as just above described, it is automatically engaged with the hook lug 61 of the ballot dropping slide and is thereby latched in its upper or normal position.

The initial part of the movement of the operating lever 13 from the position shown by full lines into the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, and which causes the pin to be deposited on the upper ends of the levers 70 and 71, takes up the slack of the chain 79, and further movement of the said operating lever 13 in the direction stated, causes the eccentric 10, acting on said chain, to straighten out the toggle 76, thereby forcing the levers 70 and 71 forward or toward the right, and thereby driving one of the pins 69 through the pack of independent vote ballot disks or tickets 37 In the pin driving action just noted, the lever 71 moves with the driving lever 7 0 until it is engaged with the pack of disks 37, and it then stops while the said driving lever is moved further forward, to force the pin through the pack. When the lever 70 is in its extreme forward position, the hook 81 engages the up-turned forward edge of the pivoted supporting shelf 44, and when the levers 70 and 71 are moved rearward, and the toggle 76 is again buckled, under the action of gravity, when the chain 79 is given a slack, the said shelf will be tilted into the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and the pin and pack of ballot disks 37 will then be dropped through the passage 46 into the receptacle 47. This pack dro ping action takes place when the operating ever 13 is, by

an election judge or other person, moved from its dotted line position back into its full line or normal osition, shown in Fig. 1. It will be noted tiat the slot 40 in the ho per 39, and the notch 42 in the anvil 41, an the notch in-the forward portion of the hinge supporting shelf 44 afford clearance for the pin 69 which is driven through the assembled pack of ballot disks 37. It is of course evident that the pin or brad driven through the assembled pack of ballot disks will very firmly secure the same together.

What I claim is:

1. A voting machine comprising irregular or independent vote indicators, cooperating register actuators movable to control the deposit of ballots corresponding to each indicator, and automatic means for separately fastening together each group of ballots cast in accordance with the successive movements of each register actuator.

2. In a voting machine, the combination with a series of register actuators assigned to predetermined candidates for different ofiices, of a series of independent vote register actuators arranged to control the successive deposits of independent vote ballots, registers or vote indicators cooperating with the said register actuators, vote limiting mechanism cooperating with said two series of register actuators, and automatic means for se arately fastening together each group of bal ots cast in accordance with the successive movements of each independent vote register actuator.

3. In an independent vote mechanism, the combination with automatic means controlling the deposit of independent vote ballots an or groups, of automatic means for securing together the said collected packs or groups of ballots, substantially as described.

4. In an independent vote mechanism, the combination with means for controlling the de osit of independent vote ballots and for co ecting the same in packs or groups, of means for applying to each collected pack or group a metallic securing device, substantially as described.

5. In an independent vote mechanism, the combination with means for controlling the deposit of independent vote ballots, and means for collecting the same in packs or groups, of means for driving a pin through each of the packs or groups deposited by the different voters.

6. In an independent vote mechanism, the combination with means for controlling the de osit of independent vote ballots and for co ecting the same in groups, of a pin driving device, a pin magazine, means for delivering a pin to said in driving device, as often as the machine 18 set for different voters, and means for o erating said pin driving device to thereby rive a pin through an assembled ack of ballots, as often as the machine is set for different voters, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' SYVER LOE.

Witnesses:

H. D. KILGORE, F. D. MERCHANT.

means for collecting the same in packs

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