To: POLITICAL EDITORS

Contact: Mary Boyle of Common Cause, +1-202-736-5770, mboyle@commoncause.org

Report Assesses 50 States on Ability to Address Voting Machine Problems on Election Day

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With millions of Americans expected to confront an array of voting technologies on Nov. 4, election experts from the Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause and Verified Voting will release on Thursday a 50-state report card that grades every state on its preparedness to respond to Election Day voting system problems like broken machines, software malfunctions, or long lines that result from voting equipment breakdowns or misallocation of machines.

As the authors will explain in a conference call on Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 12PM EDT, some states still have not adopted laws and procedures to effectively address an election system meltdown, even as the country has invested billions of dollars to improve its voting technology. The report finds a range of strengths and vulnerabilities in each state -- based on whether they provide emergency paper ballots if machines malfunction; whether electronic votes come with backup paper records; and how states tally votes and audit election results to avoid miscounts.

Every national election since 2000 has seen voting system failures stem from machines that wont start, memory cards that cant be read, mis-tallied votes, lost votes and more -- and the 2008 primaries have been no exception. This report will identify what states and voters can do between now and Election Day to make sure every vote is counted accurately.

A link to an embargoed copy of the report with charts and maps will be distributed starting Wednesday, October 15th. The report will be embargoed until 12PM EDT on Thursday.

WHO: Lawrence Norden, BrennanCenter for Justice at NYUSchool of Law

Susannah Goodman, Common Cause, director of election reform

Pamela Smith, Verified Voting Foundation, President

WHEN: Thursday, October 16, 2008

12:00 PM EDT

WHERE: Callers may dial in at 800-657-1263 and ask for the Voting in 2008 call, or conference number 68724354.

SOURCE Common Cause

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