Distributed voting system and method for land mobile radio system

A distributed Internet Protocol (IP) voting system and method for use in Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Systems having a central send-and-receive site (12) and one or more receive-only sites (26). In the distributed voting system, receive-only sites (26) are directly linked to a control point (41) using a network (40) and associated packet transmission protocol. This may be a high-speed asynchronous data link such as a standard IP network link. Each remote site (26) receiving digital data, calculates a bit error for that data. This error calculation is incorporated into the data header information. The data header information and data are placed in an IP packet and transmitted as a User Data Protocol (UDP) message to the control point. The control point (41) selects the lowest bit rate data message, or the first control message, and retransmits it using a standard radio air interface protocol, such as the APCO Project 25 air interface protocol.