# Rutgers, et al.: Security flaws could taint 2012 election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 26, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rutgers-et-al-security-flaws-could-taint-2012-election/629418 "2012-07-26T04:29:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rutgers-et-al-security-flaws-could-taint-2012-election/629418/1 "2012-07-26T04:29:15Z")
From [Countingvotes](http://www.countingvotes.org/), reporting on a Rutgers study: > [@](#): > > 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 [sic], votes were mistallied or lost. [Emphasis mine; footnotes removed] The report ranks states from worst to best in the following five areas: [ol] [li]Does the state require paper ballots or records of every state?[/li][li]Does the state have adequate contingency plans at each polling place in the event of machine failure?[/li][li]Does the state protect military and overseas voters by ensuring that marked ballots are not cast online?[/li][li]Has the state instituted a post-election audit that can determine whether the electronically reported outcomes are correct?[/li][li]Does the state use robust ballot reconciliation and tabulation practices?[/li][/ol] An extract of the findings: > [@](#): > > Sixteen states use paperless machines in some or all counties, prompting an “inadequate” grade. ```auto Arkansas Maryland Colorado Mississippi Delaware New Jersey Georgia Pennsylvania Indiana South Carolina Kansas Tennessee Kentucky Texas Louisiana Virginia ``` These states use machines that don’t produce a separate record that could be used to determine the voter’s intent, which is necessary for recounts. Are any of these “swing states”? How much of a problem could this be? ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rutgers-et-al-security-flaws-could-taint-2012-election/629418/2 "2012-07-26T13:28:20Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Are any of these “swing states”? How much of a problem could this be? Pennsylvania, Virginia and Colorado have been on pretty much every list of swing states I’ve seen recently. Isn’t it funny in all the recent push to verify proper voter legitimacy, we have a bunch of states where the only recourse in the event of a recount is to, essentially, run the computerized counting program again? Because there’s no “paper trail” to verify the system recorded the original vote correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rutgers-et-al-security-flaws-could-taint-2012-election/629418/3 "2012-07-26T14:10:46Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > Pennsylvania, Virginia and Colorado have been on pretty much every list of swing states I’ve seen recently. > > Isn’t it funny in all the recent push to verify proper voter legitimacy, we have a bunch of states where the only recourse in the event of a recount is to, essentially, run the computerized counting program again? Because there’s no “paper trail” to verify the system recorded the original vote correctly. Its particularly damning that Tennessee (where I live) went out of its way to pass a “voter ID” law this year to make sure [del]poor people[/del] [del]immigrants[/del] _ineligible voters_ can’t cast ballots, but yet isn’t worried about possible fraud due to the lack of a paper trail for the electronic voting machines.