WO2010055390A1

WO2010055390A1 - Ballot counter for ballot boxes

Info

Publication number: WO2010055390A1
Application number: PCT/IB2009/007409
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gerhard Stephanus Mynhardt
Original assignee: Novameric (Pty) Limited
Priority date: 2008-11-11
Filing date: 2009-11-11
Publication date: 2010-05-20

Abstract

A ballot counter is provided, which can be attached to either new or existing ballot boxes, the ballot box defining a slot through which a ballot paper can be inserted. The ballot counter comprises one or more optical sensors, locatable proximate the slot of the ballot box, to acquire movement data of a ballot paper that is being inserted or removed from the ballot box. A microprocessor, containing an internal program, receives the movement data and determines when a ballot paper has been dropped into the ballot box. The counter further includes a display to provide a visual display count of the number of ballots that have been inserted. A battery is provided to power the components of the ballot counter for an extended period of time

Description

BALLOT COUNTER FOR BALLOT BOXES

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a ballot counter for ballot boxes.

Typically, up to 500 ballots can be inserted into ballot boxes, and thus a means to determine the number of ballot papers inserted into ballot boxes would be desirable. However, since ballot boxes are normally simple boxes with an upper slot, it has been difficult to justify electronic counters for ballot boxes.

It is thus the aim of the present invention to provide a reliable, economical ballot counter, which is battery operated, and which can be attached to either new or existing ballot boxes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention there is provided a ballot counter, which can be attached to either new or existing ballot boxes, the ballot box defining a slot through which a ballot paper can be inserted, the ballot counter comprising:

an optical ballot insertion sensor to resolve the movement of the ballot paper;

a microprocessor, containing an internal program, to determine when a ballot paper has been dropped into the ballot box; one or more optical sensors, placed in the slot of the ballot box, to sense that a ballot paper is being inserted into the ballot box, and to also sense the direction of the ballot paper being inserted;

a display which provides a visual display count of the number of ballots that have been inserted; and

a battery to power the components of the ballot counter for an extended period of time, the battery typically being secured on the inside of the ballot box.

In an example embodiment, the ballot counter includes a real time clock set to the current time and date. The time and date can be displayed on the display, and will be used as the time and date stamp for when ballot insertion events are logged.

In an example embodiment, the time and date stamped ballot insertion events can be recorded and communicated, in a secure manner, to an external host device, thereby providing an audit trail of ballot insertions, should this be necessary.

In an example embodiment, the audit trail of ballot insertions may be used to generate an exception report to allow, for example, reporting of ballots inserted outside of the allowed election period.

In an example embodiment, a unique counter serial number is provided and programmed into a non-volatile memory of the counter microprocessor, and which can also be displayed on the display, or communicated to an attached host device, if required. In an example embodiment, the date and time of commencement of an election, and the duration of the election, can be loaded into the counter microprocessor prior to the date of the election. In addition, a software routine may be provided to the microprocessor to display the number of ballots inserted prior to, and after, the preset voting date and times.

In an example embodiment, an ePaper display may be used, which does not require power to display data, once the required display data is updated.

In an example embodiment, communications means to an external host computer is provided, where the communications may be wired or wireless, and where the data communicated may be secured using cryptography means.

In an example embodiment, the optical sensor can determine the movement, including direction, of the ballot paper, and is used to sense the ballot paper being inserted, and being moved through the insertion slot, until it drops into the ballot box. This sensor may function along with a low cost microprocessor, which will interpret the sensor X and Y movement signals to reliably count fully inserted ballot papers. It will therefore allow ballots which are inserted, and then removed again, to be sensed, and therefore not be counted.

The microprocessor may drive a simple liquid crystal display. It will contain an internal real time clock function, which allows a full time and date clock function to be implemented. The data may be stored on EEPROM memory, which allows for storage of data without requiring battery power, once the data has been written away.

In an example embodiment, a means to reset the counter is provided, and to set time and dates. This will be accomplished both by switches, and by using -A-

the secured serial USB communications means, allow the counters to be connected to host computers for data downloading, and also for setting data.

In an example embodiment, the sensor may be mounted in the centre of the ballot insertion slot, so that the surfaces of the ballot papers are close to the optical sensor surface. The sensor will detect ballot paper insertion and removal, and the XY direction of the ballot paper. The microprocessor based software can then simply determine which ballot paper movements are insertion only movements, and count these up once they are deemed to be fully inserted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a typical ballot box with a ballot counter display window being shown below an insertion slot;

Figure 2 shows an optical sensor block diagram;

Figure 3 shows an optical sensor assembly including a lens and

LED;

Figure 4 shows a top view of a ballot sensing module, fitted to the ballot box;

Figure 5 shows a side view of the ballot sensing module; and

Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram of the ballot counter. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings, the present invention determines insertion of a ballot paper, and it dropping into a slot, by using an optical sensing means. It is necessary to be able to determine the direction of the movement of the ballot paper, with only ballots inserted into the ballot box, and actually released and dropped into the ballot box, being counted. For example, if simple optical sensing was used, it would be unreliable since ballots inserted, and then pulled back out before being dropped into the slot, would potentially be counted as an inserted ballot. Since elections are mission critical, reliability of the count is very important.

For the reasons set out above, determining the direction of movement of the ballot paper is a crucial operation requirement, which, in this invention, is achieved by using an optical sensor from Avago, being the ADNS-3040 (U2) optical navigation controller. This device is most commonly used as an optical mouse sensor. Figure 2 shows the internal circuitry of the ADNS-3040. The ADNS-3040 is based on Optical Navigation Technology, which measures changes in position by optically acquiring sequential surface images (frames) and mathematically determining the direction and magnitude of movement of the ballot paper being inserted. The ADNS-3040 contains an Image Acquisition System (IAS), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), and a four wire serial port, which is attached to the microprocessor. The IAS acquires microscopic surface images of the ballot paper via the lens and illumination system.

The lens and illumination system is shown in Figure 3. This shows the position of the infra red LED, which, via the lens light pipe, illuminates the area underneath the image sensing windows. A hole in the PCB allows the light to emit and be collected onto the bottom of U2, where the image sensing windows are. The lens therefore conveys the infra red light to the ballot paper surface, and conveys the reflected image back to the image sensing windows below U2.

These images are processed by the DSP to determine the direction and distance of motion. The DSP calculates the Δx and Δy relative displacement values. A microprocessor, which may either form part of the DSP or which may take the form of a separate component as will be described in more detail below with particular reference to Figure 6, reads the Δx and Δy information from the sensor serial port, and translates that into the ballot paper movement data. Specifically, the microprocessor software calculates movement of the ballot paper into the ballot box, and, when the paper is inserted, the paper out signal is used to determine that the ballot paper has been fully inserted into the ballot box. Therefore, movement of the ballot paper partially into the ballot box, and then back out of the ballot box, is easily determined by the microprocessor software, and allows for such actions to be ignored.

In some embodiments, two or three ADNS-3040 may be used to sense the insertion of the ballot papers, since ballot papers may be folded, and may therefore be too small to be sensed by a single optical sensor when pushed through the ballot insertion slot.

Figure 4 shows a side view of the complete assembly top view. This module is mounted onto the ballot box insertion slot side wall via 4 mounting screws plus stand off studs. The LCD is mounted onto a PCB which is soldered and mounted at a 90 degrees angle to the module PCB. This PCB also contains the sensor, IR LED, switches, CPU, as well as the battery. The sensor assembly, including the lens construction, is clipped onto this main PCB.

Figure 5 shows a side view of the same assembly, and shows how light is reflected from the ballot paper back to U2. Turning now to Figure 6, in a preferred embodiment a PIC 16f631 microprocessor is used (U1). This microprocessor contains integrated flash memory for data and software, RAM for program use, and an EEPROM, used as the ballot counter. It also operates from very low current at 3V. The oscillator operates with a 32 kHz crystal (X1), which is increased in frequency via the integrated phase lock loop. However, actual operation is simple, therefore a low clock frequency below 2 MHz will be more than sufficient for most operations. The microprocessor typically 'sleeps' to conserve power, and wakes up if insertion of a ballot paper is sensed, or when the internal real time clock timer forces and interrupt at every second.

The display is a type allowing simple serial interfacing, such as the LCD modules using the S6B0741 LCD controllers. A typical LCD is the LM9033A which is a 3V 128x96 pixel LCD. This allows both the time, date, and the count to be displayed simultaneously. The microprocessor I/O ports RCO and RC1 are both set to outputs, to drive the LCD serially. RCO drives the SCK serial display clock signal, and RC1 drives the SID serial data signal. Microchip, the suppliers of the PIC microprocessor, provides source code to drive graphics displays, including providing the character font tables. This will typically be used for display generation.

The real time clock will be simple, using an internal counter set up to provide an interrupt every 1 second. During this time the processor will 'sleep', thereby drawing very little current. Upon interrupt, the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and year counters, which represent the time and date real time clock, are incremented where applicable. If the clock is displayed, the LCD is updated with the new clock values. The processor then reverts back to the sleep mode. A TC 1300 3V low drop out regulator (LDO1) drops the battery voltage to a regulated 3V. A Tadiran 3.6V primary lithium battery (B1) will typically be used due to the very high reliability, as well as the very long shelf life of over 6 years.

The processor is typically interrupted to wake up by U2 sensing a ballot. Four push buttons are provided (SW1 , SW2, SW3, SW4), this is to allow setting time, and to clear accumulated ballot counts. SW1 is the Mode switch, which primarily switches between the following modes:-

a) none operational

b) prepare for election to commence (this is the mode where the counter is ready for elections to start)

b) set time (Increment, Decrement and Set is used to set the hours, minutes and seconds)

c) set date (Increment, Decrement and Set is used to set the day, month and year)

To clear the current count, Mode + Set + Increment must be pressed together for more than 3 seconds.

To commence counting ballots, the ballot counter must be in mode b, ready for election to commence, then Set must be pressed for more than 3 seconds for counting to commence.

At the end of elections, Set and Decrement must be pressed together for more than 3 seconds to stop counting. The program in this case will also store the time and date of the first ballot sensed, as well as the time and date of the last ballot sensed before counting was stopped.

When U2 senses motion, it asserts the Motion/ signal, which will interrupt the processor via RA3. The processor software will commence the interaction with U2 using the data in and out signals DinO and DoutO onto RA1 and RA2 signals respectively. The processor determines movement direction and fully inserted from U2, once fully inserted, it increments the count, and stores it in the EEPROM memory. If movement is downwards, but back upwards again prior to it no longer being sensed, then clearly the ballot paper was not inserted, and will therefore not be counted. This simple logic will be integrated into the counter software.

Claims

1. A ballot counter, which can be attached to either new or existing ballot boxes, the ballot box defining a slot through which a ballot paper can be inserted, the ballot counter comprising:

one or more optical sensors, locatable proximate the slot of the ballot box, to acquire movement data of a ballot paper that is being inserted or removed from the ballot box;

a microprocessor, containing an internal program, to receive the movement data and to determine when a ballot paper has been dropped into the ballot box;

a battery to power the components of the ballot counter for an extended period of time, the battery typically being secured inside the ballot box.

2. The ballot counter of claim 1 , which includes a real time clock set to the current time and date, which can be displayed on the display and which can be used as a time and date stamp for when ballot insertion events are logged.

3. The ballot counter of claim 2, which includes means to record the time and date stamped ballot insertion events.

4. The ballot counter of either claim 2 or claim 3, which includes means to communicate the time and date stamped ballot insertion events, in a secure manner, to an external host device, thereby providing an audit trail of ballot insertions.

5. The ballot counter of either claim 4, wherein the audit trail of ballot insertions can be used to generate an exception report to allow reporting of ballots inserted outside of an allowed election period.

6. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, which includes a unique counter serial number that can be programmed into a non- volatile memory of the counter microprocessor, and which can also be displayed on the display and/or communicated to an attached host device.

7. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the date and time of commencement of an election, and the duration of the election, can be loaded into the counter microprocessor prior to the date of the election.

8. The ballot counter of claim 7, wherein a software routine can be provided to enable the microprocessor to display the number of ballots inserted prior to, and after, the preset voting date and times.

9. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, which includes a secondary display that does not require power to display data, once the required display data is updated.

10. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, which includes communications means to an external host computer, the communications being either wired or wireless, and where the data communicated can be secured using cryptography means.

11. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the movement data acquired by the optical sensor includes Δx and Δy relative displacement values.

12. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the display comprises an LCD that is driven by the microprocessor.

13. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, which includes a means to reset the counter, and to set time and dates, the reset means being actuable either manually or remotely.

14. The ballot counter of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the optical sensor is mounted in the centre of the ballot insertion slot, so that the surfaces of the ballot papers are proximate the optical sensor.