He saw that it was very troublesome to register the votes manually when members of Congress voted, so he invented the voting machine by using the telegraph principle. From then on, every member just needs to press the button on his seat, and his vote will be recorded immediately and counted automatically.
Edison was determined to make this invention popular with members of Congress. However, I didn't expect the minority party to take the lead in opposing it, because the accelerated voting speed would make it impossible for the minority party to delay the passage of the bill.
So Edison's first patent became something nobody wanted.
-from Wei Feng. com