There is nothing more fundamental to a free and fair election than an accurate count. But on the way to the 21st century we belatedly realized that we're stuck with 19th-century voting technology. Actually, it's worse than that. The voting machine that recorded my ballot, using a technology invented in the 1890s, is more reliable than the punch-card technology contrived in the 1950s.
Voting machines have nice, clearlevers, splendid bells to chime in the vote, and no hanging chads.
The antique technology, in turn, reflects an 18th century conception of what is properly local and what is necessarily national. The US Constitution allows each state to devise its own balloting systems. But most states have abdicated their responsibility and allowed a crazy quilt of local systems run by a combination of well-meaning volunteers, political hacks, and inept appointees capable of inventing butterfly ballots and worse. You could register in several states and nobody would be the wiser. I could have put on a tighter suit and voted as Michael Dukakis.