Publication Summary

In July, 2012, the Verified Voting Foundation, together with Common Cause and the Rutgers School of Law released a report that surveyed election preparedness for the 2012 General Election.

Summary of Our Joint Report

On Election Day, Nov. 6, the stakes will be high. A number of critical races will be very close, and some might be decided by very few votes. At the same time, it is highly likely that voting systems will fail in multiple places across the country. In fact, in every national election in the past decade, computerized voting systems have failed – machines haven’t started, machines have failed in the middle of voting, memory cards couldn’t be read be read, votes were mis-tallied or lost.

Our elections are so complex, with so many different jurisdictions and varying technologies, that problems are inevitable. And, as the technology used for elections has become more complicated, the opportunity for error has substantially increased.