Now, all of this would be easy to fix if there was a paper trail but, alas, those whacky machines don't have a paper trial. Nothing, Nada, Zilch. Which means there's no way anyone can tell who really won or not. So despite the fact the Sarasota disctrict is a Democratic district, the Republican is now in Washington getting a crash course in how to be a congress person (with such classes of "What To Do if You Diddle a Page" or "Earmarks: Live It, Learn It, Love It" and for Republicans, "Why You Should Never Vote Against the President Despite the Fact He's an Idiot") while the Democrat is suing to get in, the with help from Howard Dean and the new Democratic majority .

So what does all of this have to do here in the Yay Area? The new head of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee is our very own Dianne Feinstein and DiFi is on the case. Once she moves into position of power, she promises to propose legislation that in the Senate (there's a similar bill about to be proposed in the House) would force electronic voting machine companies to supply a paper trail. She also wants it so that all of the vote counting software will be checked out and the code possibly made public.

There's a good chance that this legislation will place. By now, everyone is starting to figure out that the system as we have it is unworkable. And Democrats, for whatever reason, are a little touchy about unreliable election results.

California, BTW, is already moving in that direction.