I prefer a caucus myself. Make everyone show up for several hours and explain why they voted for whomever. If it's close, no one goes home until it's decided.

:)

Last time we voted locally here in Kentucky I cast a nearly blank ballot. I took my 13 year old daughter into the booth to show how it works. After we had selected 1 or 2 races she accidently leaned agaisnt the "vote" button. The rest of my votes were blank.

Which shows another problem with the touch screen ballots -- you can't ask for another ballot because you "spoiled" yours. Once you hit vote it's all over.

Actually, the Florida Legislature recommended the scantron machines for that very reason. The Legislature even paid (at least in part) for the scantrons.

However, some local independently-elected Supervisors decided that they would go from the punch ballot to the electronic voting, even though it had never been tested or used for elections on that big a size. Of course, the makers of the electronic ballots promised that they would leave a slip, like a receipt, that could be used in a recount. But a blank receipt is just that, blank.

The fact is that some people don’t vote when the go to the ballot box. They go to the polling place, they get a ballot and then leave it blank. I have never been sure why but it happens.

"I still think they should have used the optical/scantron type ballots."

Amen. Any idea why scantrons aren't being used around the country? In my state, Maryland, we've also got touch-screen machines.

These electronic ballots leave no paper trail. What are they going to do if there is another Florida scenario with these gizmos? Get out an electron microscope to examine the hard drives?

Slahdot had a story on this.

It is suspected that the undervotes were caused by people who intentionally did not cast a vote (For example, a die-hard Democrat who's never voted Republican in his life and isn't about to start now.) Without any kind of paper trail it's impossible to know for certain.

To cover that contingency, the county is adding 'None of the Above' as a valid voting option.

I think it simply boils down to what happens when a crisis results in policy, usually an ill-considered over-reaction. Since touch screens are the latest tech, surely that's the way to go, right?

In Florida, for some supervisors of elections the switch to touch-screens was simply a "we're jumping to the forefront of election technology so please give me a massive budget" moment. It is a marriage of opportunism and crisis, which usually does result in more problems.

I think that the best part of the story is a few months ago Gov. Bush removed from office the Broward County Supervisor of Elections. The Supervisor, who was an African-American female, had done such a poor job that the African-American community supported Gov. Bush's decision. But we are still stuck with her poor choices.