Even though 'we have the technology' it seems that we are far from being totally bionic when it comes to simply counting votes.

No doubt most of the electorate still have unpleasant memories of the recount situation in Florida in the election of 2000 where George W. Bush—with the help of his brother Jeb, the Supreme Court and Katherine Harris—managed to beat out Al Gore by the slimmest of margins and of course everyone became more than familiar with the term chads, be they hanging, or dimpled.

Since then, Congress approved some $3 billion in funding to replace punch ballot and lever-operated ballot counting technology in the hope that new touch-screen technology available would save the day and indeed a nation from further embarrassment.

As of December 2007, some $253 million of the Federally approved $3 billion allocated was spent on 'upgrading' voting machines, according to a report by the Election Assistance Commission which was the agency set up to oversee the allocation of funds to the 10,072 voting districts across the nation.

Unfortunately, the loss in confidence in this technology with e-votes vanishing from computer malfunction, human error and the ever-present vulnerability to hacking had voting districts and technology phobic voters panicking.

Diebold, the once preeminent electronic voting manufacturer, has basically been discredited from negative reports was forced to change their name to Premier Election's Systems. San Diego, which spent $25 million, has had all their 10,200+ electronic machines boxed up in a warehouse in storage. This came after the Secretary of State, Debra Bowen banned them for lack of reliability.

One manufacturer, according to a report in August by AP, offered the machines for sale on eBay and Craigslist for a $1 each! The hope apparently was that some needy third-world nation eager to get on the democracy bandwagon could use them, or at least salvage the scrap.

Even the high-tech pioneering state of California along with the somewhat election tarnished Florida and Ohio have ordered their districts to shelve e-voting systems over the past two-years, and return to the familiar paper ballot.

Tomorrow, when it is widely predicted that history will be made, the largest democratic nation in the world will decide in what looks like being the biggest turn out in US elections in a long time, 57 percent will do so do so using a pen, or some type of analog stylus and a simple piece of printed paper.

Elections and the simple task of accurately counting them, it seems, will always be scrutinized and criticized by some sections of society for their accuracy. If you need further proof than Florida 2000, just take a look at this somewhat ironic segment by the late Mr Rogers where he demonstrates the simple task of using a voting machine to his junior audience during his 1974 TV program. The PBS gem, which was unearthed in a blog by Kim Zetter of Wired, illustrates that all technology, whether it is analog, or digital has its pitfalls. This episode though would be truly hilarious if it weren't so frightfully realistic at the same time.

So for tomorrow, for one day at least, the pen is still deemed far mightier than the sword, and indeed in most cases, still mightier than touch-screen.