At least a groundhog makes the headlines once a year.

Major Problems At Polls Feared - washingtonpost.com:

In the Nov. 7 election [upcoming], more than 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting machines, and a third of all precincts this year are using the technology for the first time. The changes are part of a national wave, prompted by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 and numerous revisions of state laws, that led to the replacement of outdated voting machines with computer-based electronic machines, along with centralized databases of registered voters and other steps to refine the administration of elections.

But this problem - the problem with electronic voting machines - gets attention every two years, right before a national election. As the Washington Post noted yesterday with a resounding yawn:

What is clear is that a national effort to improve election procedures six years ago -- after the presidential election ended with ambiguous ballots and allegations of miscounted votes and partisan favoritism in Florida -- has failed to restore broad public confidence that the system is fair.

Oh no, Bunky. It's not just a matter of "restoring public confidence" and "fair" is not what we're after here - correct is what we're after, not "fair." (It's entirely possible to be wildly incorrect but still "fair," as when both teams draw bad but generally offsetting penalties in a game.)

We've known about this problem for six years. What's at stake is, literally, democracy. But how many people have you heard yapping about it on cable news (I understand Lou Dobbs is on the case, but who else)? How many times have you read about it in a newspaper, except times like now, a month before a general election? And after this upcoming election there will be lots of screaming about election fraud for maybe two or three weeks, and then the whole affair will go back to sleep until 2008.

Yet the problem could be fixed by the end of the week. Toss out the machines, count by hand. And while we're at it let's make a law that says election results may not be disclosed until 48 hours after the election, and then they must be disclosed at the same set time nation-wide, all at once.