US 4,484,787 AGranted

Portable, foldable voting booth/lectern

AssigneeElection Data Corporation

InventorRichard J. Stephens

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Abstract

A combination voting booth/speaker's lectern which is disposable, yet reusable is disclosed. The voting booth/lectern includes an upper shelf member and a lower support member both preferably comprised of cardboard, or other commonly used, semi-rigid, lightweight and inexpensive material. The lower support member is foldable into three sections which are generally vertically oriented, the top portions of which are insertable into a series of slots on the lower side of the upper shelf member. The upper shelf member includes four foldable sections, one of which is positioned upon and engaged by the lower support section by means of the aforementioned slots. The remaining three sections of the upper shelf member may be folded upon one another in forming a speaker's lectern or may be extended to a generally vertical orientation so as to form a semi-enclosed area providing the privacy required when the present invention is used as a voting booth. The present invention is disposable, re-usable and portable while affording a stable, generally horizontal work or support surface which may be enclosed on three sides as desired.

Claims1

Dependent claims

A combination voting booth/speaker's lectern comprising:

a lower, generally flat, planar support member foldable into three flexible coupled sections including a back section and two side sections oriented generally vertically in a nonplanar configuration and including an upper edge portion and a lower edge portion, with said back section including an extension portion foldably coupled to said upper edge of said back section;
and
an upper, planar shelf member having upper and lower surfaces and foldable into a plurality of flexibly coupled sections including a generally horizontal bottom section and a plurality of sidewalls foldable into a first generally upright position for substantially enclosing the upper surface of said bottom section for use as a voting booth or a second generally horizontal position immediately adjacent the upper surface of said bottom section for use as a speaker's lectern, the lower surface of said shelf member including a three coupled linear groove therein for receiving the upper edge portion of said back and side sections of said support member and wherein said extension portion on said back section is fixedly positioned within and coupled to one of said coupled linear grooves in the lower surface of said shelf member whereby said shelf member and said support member form a single structural unit foldable along the union of said extension portion and the upper edge of said back section.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.