Florida wises up .. a little too late

The New York Times is reporting today that Florida is moving to a voting system with a paper trail.
The paper said the move by Florida, plus new federal voting legislation expected to pass this year, could mark the end for the paperless electronic touch-screen machines. The Florida action is planned to take place before the 2008 presidential election. If it happens, it would be the nation’s biggest repudiation yet of touch-screen voting. Unfortunately, this comes too late after the election debacle in 2000 and the shady Ohio dealing in 2004. Even the Republican Party of Florida sent out fliers before the 2004 presidential election urging voters to use absentee ballots because of the absence of a paper trail.
The story notes that former Governor Bush, the younger brother of President Bush, has generally defended touch-screen voting during his tenure and said skeptics had fallen prey to “conspiracy theories.”
Given what happened in 2000, why is that not a surprise? Fortunately, smarter heads appear to be prevailing.