The Florida election debacle of 2000 lives on. In the race to replace Rep. Katherine Harris in Florida's 13th district there is -- of all things -- an electoral snafu.

The 2006 election between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings will be long noted as a particularly dirty fight. One in which a record amount of money was spent distorting each other's positions.

The real story is the vote in the 13th district. Or, more to the point, the undervote. In Sarasota County, the coverage on the razor thin margin of Buchanan's lead (373 votes) over Jennings has been front page news since the election. More than 18,000 voters in Manatee County are presumed to have skipped the congressional race on their touch screen ballots. The Bradenton Herald and Sarasota Herald-Tribune have detailed the raging controversy and the likely litigation that will follow any recount.

The battle looming though is over the way America votes. The touch screen voting system which fails to provide a paper trail is at the center of the controversy. Sarasota supervisor of election Kathy Dent wrote a letter to the Sarasota County Commission stating in part, "...I am going to urge the county commission to find necessary funds to purchase voting equipment which will satisfy the expression of the voters and current federal and state law."

Whether the election in the 13th district to replace Harris is decided by a recount, a special election or by Congress itself, the irony remains. The taint of voting irregularities, if not outright fraud, will be once again carefully monitored nationwide. As for Katherine Harris, she leaves the national political scene haunting the integrity of the electoral process itself.