The New York Times editorial board takes a final look back at the 2004 election and decides that a 4,000 vote screw-up in North Carolina's race for agriculture commissioner is an open-and-shut case against electronic voting machines.

Let's not excuse the monumental screw-up in North Carolina, but the only thing more shocking than how little ink the Times spends on the Washington State fiasco is the assertion that there are no problems with that state's governor's race.

North Carolina agriculture commissioner may not be the loftiest of offices. But if the same glitch had occurred in Washington, where Christine Gregoire was just elected governor by 129 votes, it would have destabilized the entire state government.

Washington State doesn't need a problem-with-electronic-voting-machines scandal, because it's already got a problem-with-incompetent-poll-workers fiasco. (For a complete rundown, see SoundPolitics.com)

You shouldn't expect a newspaper editorial to be fair -- especially one written by anyone at the Times -- but you be able to count on them for at least being honest and straight with the facts that they do present.

The Times has often failed in this, but from what I've seen this is a new low -- and that's saying something.