Potential Threats to Statewide Voter Registration Systems

Abstract

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed in 2002, requires that states implement "...a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level that contains the name and registration information of every legally registered voter in the State and assigns a unique identifier to each legally registered voter in the State." Many states are now rushing to meet these requirements by January 1, 2006, and by the time of the November 2006 federal elections it is likely that virtually all states will have their statewide voter registration system operational.