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Forgive me if I'm wrong on this but doesn't a multimeter tell you the voltage but not necessarily the state of charge? A 12v lead acid battery pack can be only partially charged and still show 12v across the terminals. To check the state of charge you really need to use a hydrometer, which can get messy if you splash the acid around.
Where a multimeter does tell you about a battery is if the battery reads 10v, in which case one of the cells has died and the battery won't hold a charge. It can also be used with the battery under load - if the voltage drops when under load then the battery is in a state of disharge (ie it cannot maintain its voltage when under load). But at rest a 12v lead acid pack will still read 12v even if each of the cells is only partially charged.
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