Show Me The Paper

New York's foot-dragging in approving a new voting system has had at least one unintended consequence -- and this time it's a good one.  We've been able to watch what's worked and what hasn't in other states.  For example, Florida jumped on the electronic voting bandwagon early and is now scrambling to get back off.

During the chad-hanging agony of Florida's 2000 presidential election, it would have been hard to imagine a politician appearing before a crowd and promising more manual recounts - and getting applause.

But after six years and a contentious experiment with paperless electronic voting in much of the state, Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler last week made hand recounts sound as appealing as low-cost prescription drugs when he spoke to a senior-dominated audience west of Delray Beach.

"Florida law wisely says, in a close election, the people deserve a manual recount," Wexler declared.

He then introduced Gov. Charlie Crist, who wants legislators to approve $32.5 million to end paperless voting in Florida. The Republican governor got wild applause from the Democrat-dominated audience as he, too, called for a return to paper ballots and the prospect of more recounts.

"We need to be able to find out, if there is a question about a vote, that there's a ballot to recount," Crist said.

There are obviously problems with paper-based voting systems, too, but well-designed rules defining a properly-cast vote can overcome most of those.  There's still nothing like a good-old stack of reassuring paper to fall back on, though, when the outcome of an election is disputed.  New York can still benefit from Florida's (and Ohio's and North Carolina's and . . .) mistake, if only for once we'll pay attention.