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US 7,306,149 B2Granted
Ballot form and method for making and using same
OwnerSalvatore E. DeBiase, Jr.inventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is an improved scannable answer sheet or document suitable for a balloting process and a method for producing such document using a printing process, particularly a document that may be printed in a single color without impacting the ability of the document to be scanned by an automated mechanism.
Claims14
A method for recording a voter's ballot selection in an election, comprising:
- receiving information about a plurality of candidates;
- laying out a ballot, said layout including the information;
- printing a ballot on at least a portion of one side of a substrate, said ballot including a plurality of indicia and associated response bubbles, wherein said indicia and bubbles are arranged in a predefined orientation, wherein said response bubbles are of a substantially elliptical shape;
- providing said ballot to a voter for casting of at least one vote by placing a mark within at least one of the response bubbles;
- retrieving a completed ballot after said voter has cast the at least one vote;
- and
- scanning said completed ballot, using an optical scanning device, to detect and record only those marks within the response bubbles as votes for candidates represented by the associated indicia.
4 more elements
A method for producing a scannable sheet for user selection of lottery ticket numbers, comprising:
- printing on at least a portion of one side of a substrate used to make the scannable sheet, using an ink that is non-reflective for a plurality of scanning light colors, a plurality of timing marks proximate at least one edge of the substrate;
- and
- printing, on the side of the substrate used to make the scannable sheet, a plurality of marks to indicate a plurality of response regions, said marks being printed using the ink that is non-reflective for a plurality of scanning light colors, wherein said marks are arranged in a predefined orientation and spacing relative to the substrate and where said marks are printed with at least one continuous curvilinear line segment so as to indicate the response region associated therewith and where said marks are generally aligned with said response regions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.