System And Method For Electronic Voting Network

An election voting system network comprising:

• a plurality of voting devices, the voting devices being network connectable and being configured to process a voter's ballot selections;
• a voting network controller, the controller network being connectable to at least one of the plurality of voting devices, the voting network controller providing control over the plurality of voting devices;
• a communication network coupling the voting devices and the network controller, the communication network being configured as a serial daisy chain connection of the voting network controller and the plurality of voting devices;
• and
• wherein at least two of the plurality of voting devices each include a relay, the relay shunting network communications received by a first voting device of the plurality of voting devices, the shunted network communications being provided to a second voting device of the plurality of voting devices, the shunted communications being shunted even when the first voting network device is not powered.

An election voting system network device, comprising:

• a plurality of network connectors, the network connectors providing a connection point for connecting the voting system network device to a voting network;
• a relay, the relay coupled to at least two of the plurality of network connectors;
• a multi-port switch, the multi-port switch having at least one port coupled to each of the plurality of network connectors and another port coupled to processing circuitry of the voting system network device, the multi-port switch configured to allow routing and propagating network communications amongst other voting devices according a network address scheme, the multi-port switch configured to receive network communications on at least a first port, for network communications intended for other voting devices the switch retransmitting the network communications through a second port;
• and
• the relay being configured to pass network communications between the network connectors and the multi-port switch in a normal mode of operation and being configured to shunt network communications between at least two of the plurality of network connectors in a manner that bypasses the multi-port switch in a bypass mode of operation.

A method of configuring a network connected election voting system, comprising:

• providing a plurality of voting devices, the voting devices being network connectable and being configured to process a voter's ballot selections;
• providing a voting network controller, the controller network being connectable to at least one of the plurality of voting devices, the voting network controller providing control over the plurality of voting devices;
• configuring the plurality of voting devices and the voting network controller to communicate over a communication network, the communication network being configured as serial daisy chain connections of the voting network controller and the plurality of voting devices;
• configuring at least some of the plurality of voting devices to communicate with each other through the use of multi-port switches within each of the at least some of the plurality of voting devices, the, the multi-port switches routing and propagating network communications among the plurality of voting devices of the voting system network according a network address scheme, each of the multi-port switches receiving network communications on at least a first port, for network communications intended for another of the plurality of voting devices the multi-port switch retransmitting through a second port network communications to a next voting device in the serial daisy chain connections of the plurality of voting devices.