NEW REPORT! Lost Voters, Lost Votes: A Report By The New Organizing Institute

The New Organizing Institute recently released a report into the effect of polling place changes and consolidation on citizens' ability to vote. The report notes that in 2008 "an estimated 1.9 million voters did not cast a ballot for one simple and solvable reason: they did not know where to go." In addition, in 2008, 90,000 provisional ballots were not counted because voters cast their ballots in the wrong precinct.

A main reason why voters end up lost is that polling locations change from election to election. In 2010 a big factor will be that tight budgets will cause counties to consolidate polling places, as has already been seen in Ohio, Alabama, Hawaii and Montana. NOI predicts that if the same level of polling location changes occurs after this census as occurred after the 2000 census, in 2012 an excess of 29 million established voters could have their polling locations changed.

To read the full report, click here.