US 7,597,258 B2Granted

Confidential electronic election system

AssigneeCCComplete, Inc.

InventorsGerald B. Feldkamp, G. Scott Scholler, Michael J. Baum, Robert C. Thompson

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Abstract

A system is provided for improved elections which may separate the identity of the voter from the content of the vote she casts. The system may be implemented using electronic or other communication methods. Separate entities may be used to implement the system, with one entity acting as a member services system, and another entity acting as an election services system. The member services system may control voter information for all members of a group eligible to vote in a specific election. The election services system may control the voting process, including receiving votes from members, without having access to the voter information controlled by the member services system. The two entities might be configured so that no single person or organization may connect the voter information to a particular vote. This separation of voter information from information in the members' votes may comply with various government regulations relating to elections.

Claims50

Dependent claims

An election system comprising at least a member services computer system and an election services computer system, the member services computer system being configured to:

store, for the members associated with an election, member-identifying information for each member and a unique first member code for each member in a group authorized to vote in an election, the first member code being related to a unique second member code, the first and second member codes not including member-identifying information;
communicate to the election services computer system the first member code for each member in the group;
receive from the election services computer system a communication indicating that a member has voted, and
not receive information related to how the member voted, whereby the content of the vote of a member cannot be associated with the identification of the member using information contained in the member services computer system;
the election services computer system being configured to:
receive the first member code;
store the first member code;
authenticate each voting member accessing the elections services computer system by receiving the second member code from each voting member, and relating the received second member code to the stored first member code;
receive a vote from each authenticated voting member;
store the vote received from each authenticated voter;
and
not receive or store, at any time during the election, member-identifying information in association with the first member code or in association with each member vote, whereby the content of the vote of a member cannot be associated with the identification of the member that voted using information that the election services computer system is configured to store.

9 more elements

At least a first storage medium readable by at least a first processor, having embodied therein a first program of commands executable by the first processor and at least a second program of commands executable by at least a second processor, the first program being adapted to be executed to:

store, for the members associated with an election, member-identifying information for each member, and a unique first member code for each member in a group authorized to vote in an election, the first member code being related to a unique second member code, the first and second member codes not including member-identifying information, but not content of the vote of the member;
communicate to the second processor the first member code for each member in a group;
receive from the second processor a communication indicating that a member has voted;
and
not receive information related to how the member voted, whereby the content of the vote of a member cannot be associated with the identification of the member using information store by the second processor;
and
the at least a second program being adapted to be executed to:
receive the first member code;
store the first member code;
authenticate each voting member accessing the first processor by receiving the second member code from each voting member, and relating the received second member code to the stored first member code;
receive a vote from each authenticated voting member;
store the vote received from each authenticated voter;
and
not receive or store, at any time during the election, member-identifying information in association with the first member code or in association with each member vote, whereby the content of the vote of a member cannot be associated with the identification of the member that voted using information stored by the first processor.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.