Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, Ph.D (born October 20, 1954) is an expert in computer security, especially in electronic voting

Electronic voting

Electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....

 where she has been researching, writing about, and testifying since 1989. Having completed a fellowship at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where her research focused on transparency and trust issues in computational systems, she has returned to Notable Software where she conducts forensic computing investigations and provides expert witness testimony on a broad range of criminal, civil and municipal matters (some in the elections arena).

She is known to have popularized the idea of using voter-verified paper ballots, whereby an electronic voting machine prints a paper ballot under transparent glass or plastic for the voter to verify before casting their vote (often referred to as the "Mercuri method

Mercuri method

The "Mercuri method" is another name for a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail—a modification to DRE voting machines that provides for a physical audit record that may be used to verify the electronic vote count. Because these machines record votes internally, in computer software, vote fraud may...

").

Mercuri put up a web site when she noticed the 2000 Presidential election falling into confusion, and within 15 minutes had a call from the Associated Press - who had found her materials. She submitted testimony in Bush v. Gore that was subsequently referenced in the briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has since testified before the U.S. House Science Committee, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the UK Cabinet, and numerous other federal and state legislative bodies about voting systems.

External links

• Electronic Voting -- Rebecca Mercuri's web site, includes articles, published papers, an e-mail list, and other information related to her interests.
• Election glitch news -- Google news on the term "election glitch," Mercuri's favorite way to keep up with the latest troubles, as told at her presentation "A Better Ballot Box?" November 14, 2003 at North Carolina State University
  North Carolina State University
  North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
  
  .
• Security Watch -- Mercuri's archived articles about computer security.