Recent news about Florida experiencing more voting problems prompts wags to exclaim sarcastically, "Really?  What else is new?"  Voting difficulties are now etched into Florida's firmament as indelibly as bright sunshine, sandy beaches, hurricanes, and humidity.

I can qualify as a before and after experiment pertaining to my own experiences living recently in Florida as well as what I encountered when I moved one year ago to my current home of Seattle.  The voting procedures were as different as between day and night with land of sunshine Florida occupying the level of darkness in the stark equation.

After much enthusiastic trumpeting Florida's political power elite gushed that a new and advanced age of technology had arrived with the advent of touch screen voting.  I was present when the new technology made its debut in my Fort Lauderdale precinct.

The new apparatus was being unveiled in Broward County at a time when the circumstances appeared at least superficially simple.  I turned out to vote against Mayor Jim Naugle in his umpteenth reelection attempt, spurred on once more by the local power structure.  

After moving from Florida, where "modern" voting machine innovations caused nothing but havoc in a state that provided Republicans with a chance to steal the presidency in 2000, I was delighted with my first experience today in Seattle.

It was a delight casting my initial vote in Seattle for one basic reason; they did it the tried and true old-fashioned way and as a result there will be no problem with paper trails and the like or vanishing would-be votes.

My voting precinct was sandwiched between Key Arena, where I watch our local Sonics play pro basketball, and the Seattle Repertory Company, which has become widely renowned for featuring the plays of Seattle's great dramatist, the recently deceased August Wilson.

Having had some bitter experiences with the new touch screen voting process while living in Fort Lauderdale, an innovation that seems to serve no legitimate purpose and is completely unnecessary, it was a delight to walk over to a courteous poll worker, who provided me with a welcome piece of information.