US 12,249,188 B2
Absentee ballot system and method using codes for minimizing pandemic exposure
Lalit Lodha, Boston, MA (US); and Joshua Huntington, Chandler, AZ (US)
Filed by Lalit Lodha, Boston, MA (US)
Filed on Jan. 24, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/582,942.
Application 17/582,942 is a continuation in part of application No. 16/870,979, filed on May 10, 2020, granted, now 11,232,663.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/846,449, filed on May 10, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0198865 A1, Jun. 23, 2022
Int. Cl. G07C 13/00 (2006.01); G06Q 50/26 (2024.01); G07C 9/27 (2020.01); G16H 10/60 (2018.01); G16H 50/80 (2018.01)
CPC G07C 13/00 (2013.01) [G06Q 50/26 (2013.01); G06Q 2230/00 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for printing, sending, receiving and counting absentee ballots, comprising:
(a) receiving a unique biometric identifier from a would-be voter and inputting the same into a database of registered voters;
(b) creating a plurality of ballots, each of said ballots bearing a unique code device containing a unique identification code;
(c) receiving a communication from said would-be voter requesting a ballot, said communication being initiated from a personal computing device;
(d) verifying that said personal computing device can only be activated by receiving a biometric;
(e) receiving personal identification information from said would-be voter;
(f) comparing and associating said received personal identification information with voter record information contained in said database of registered voter information to determine whether said would-be voter is registered to vote;
(g) in response to a positive identification of said would-be voter as a registered voter, storing in a balloted voter database a notation that said would be voter is to be sent one of said ballots;
(h) scanning a unique code device on one of said ballots and storing the identification of said ballot in a sent ballots database; and said storing being done with associated identification information associating said ballot with said would be voter,
(i) sending a ballot whose identification is noted in said sent ballots database to said would-be voter;
(j) receiving a communication from said registered voter using a personal computing device biometric,
said communication comprising a locally generated biometric identifier and an output of a scan of the unique code device on said ballot sent to said would-be voter, and said information including the unique identification code;
(k) in response to said communication from said registered voter comprising the output of said scan of said unique code device on said ballot and said locally generated biometric identifier, storing in a voted ballots database the unique identification code of said scanned ballot;
(l) receiving said scanned ballot from said would-be voter annotated with election choices;
(m) repeating steps (b) through (j) for a plurality of voters;
(n) for each of the ballots received from would-be voters,
verifying that each ballot is included in the sent-ballots database and is included in the voted ballots database, and verifying that the locally generated biometric identifier associated with the received ballot matches the stored biometric identifier associated with the would-be voter, whereby the ballots that have a matching biometric identifier, and which are included in the sent-ballots database and are identified as verified ballots; and
(o) counting the election choices in said verified ballots.