Bottle-cap manufacturers are busy ensuring that children really can't open the child-proof caps. Software manufacturers are busy adding "Save before exiting?" warning messages to their programs. Meanwhile, voting machine manufacturers and their loyal customers are busy defending their products' malfunctions and design flaws by blaming the people they claim to serve.

First-time users of these poorly-designed voting systems are expected to take up the slack. Here's how it's working out.

Griffith erased the vote by touching the check mark at Bush's name. That's how a voter can alter a touch-screen ballot. She again tried to vote for Kerry, but the screen again said she had voted for Bush. The third time, the screen agreed that her vote should go to Kerry.

She faced the same problem repeatedly as she filled out the rest of the ballot. On one item, "I had to vote five or six times," she said.

Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said she doesn't believe the touch-screen system has been making mistakes. It's the fault of voters, she said Thursday. ... "I have confidence in the machines," she said. "They are touch screens. People are touching them with their palms, or leaning their hand. ... They're hitting the wrong button."

Bureau of Elections Manager Eddie Gutierrez also said he doesn't believe there are problems with the machines.

The reader says he caught his error on the review screen before finalizing his vote, but he questions whether everyone -- especially new voters -- would do the same.

[Bexar County Elections Administrator Clifford] Borofsky says his office has received only two reports in 60,000 votes cast of votes being registered by individuals inadvertently resting their hand on the voting screen. However, there is no way to know how many people made the mistake without knowing it.

"That's what the review screen is for," Borofsky says, adding that it is the fail-safe built into the system to guard against inadvertent votes.

Since the Bush/Cheney ticket is the first thing on the page, it is highlighted when the page comes up – and thus, pressing "enter" at that moment causes the Kerry/Edwards vote to be changed to Bush/Cheney.

Fisher stressed very strongly that voters should not rush, but carefully and thoroughly examine their ballots on the final review page before pressing "cast ballot."