WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Most U.S. states are not prepared to handle Election Day voting glitches such as machine breakdowns, experts say.

A report by voter advocacy groups Common Cause, Verified Voting and the Brennan Center for Justice says states also lack the ability to respond to a shortage of emergency ballots, Stateline.org reported Friday.


The report says among the states least-prepared to handle problems are the presidential swing states of Colorado and Virginia, along with Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

The voter advocacy groups found that Alaska, California, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon and Wisconsin have the best-prepared voting systems.

"We know that on Nov. 4, voting systems will fail somewhere. They've failed somewhere in every national election since 2000," said Larry Norden of the Brennan Center. "Unfortunately, we can't predict where those failures will be, and for this reason, every state has to be as prepared as possible for a system failure."

Stateline reported a separate report also released Thursday found that most states lack a Web site that has easily accessible Election Day information, such as polling locations.

The report by the Make Voting Work, a non-partisan project of the Pew Center on the States, and Nielsen Norman Group gave the lowest grades to New Hampshire, Mississippi, Illinois, Connecticut and New Mexico.

Iowa, meanwhile, got the highest marks, Stateline reported.