Consider this picture of civil discord. The U.S. elections this November are close. Once again, victory turns on the electoral votes of disputed states like Florida. But officials in the disputed states have purchased a new voting technology that has returned dubious results in previous elections. When all the votes have been counted, they are divided within the margin of statistical error. Election laws mandate recounts. But the new technology has no mechanism for a manual recount. To many Americans, the election seems illegitimate. Technology is blamed.

This year, around 50 million voters will cast their votes using electronic machines. Electronic voting was implemented with the best of intentions. After the Florida recount of 2000, Congress was determined to wean American voters from punch-card voting. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed in October 2002, provided $3.9 billion in federal funds to help states upgrade their election technology. States rushed to buy new devices, including touch-screen machines. And HAVA was, by its own limited lights, a success: the proportion of voters using punch-card machines will be only 14 percent this year, compared to 31 percent in the last election.