It is Election Night 2004. The presidential tally stalls in a near-tie. All eyes turn to a pivotal state, a rich source of electoral votes, where election supervisors scrutinize ballots. Punch-card ballots. Yes, punch-card ballots, the much maligned voting system -- dimpled chad, hanging chad, pregnant chad -- that symbolized Florida's botched election four years ago, politically paralyzed the nation for 37 days and altered the course of electoral history. Punch cards may be gone in Florida, but chads still thrive elsewhere and are actually gaining favor in some quarters. As many as 32 million voters in 307 counties in...