You don't have to be Bev Harris or a Diebold obsessive to get pissed off about this story from Page B4 of today's WaPo. You just need to be a citizen who expects a basic level of competence and integrity in the election process:

U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday . . . Election officials attribute the mistake to an increase in the type size on the ballot. Although the larger type is easier to read, it also unintentionally shortens the longer names on the summary page of the ballot. Thus, Democratic candidate Webb will appear with his first name and nickname only -- or "James H. 'Jim' " -- on summary pages in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, the only jurisdictions in Virginia that use balloting machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic of Austin. "We're not happy about it," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said last night, adding that the campaign learned about the problem a week ago and has since been in touch with state election officials. "I don't think it can be remedied by Election Day. Obviously, that's a concern."

Let's review:

1) Two weeks before the election, we know that one of the two major party candidates for the top-of-the-ballot race in Virginia will definitely have his name truncated to "James H. 'Jim'" on the final voting machine screen seen by many NoVa voters before casting their votes. Meanwhile, his opponent, George F. Allen, will have his full name displayed;

2) We're being told that this error can and will not be fixed before Election Day -- in fact, Alexandria Registrar Tom Parkins is later quoted as saying that "this is not the kind of problem that has either shaken our confidence in the system overall or that of the vote. There have been far worse problems around the country . . . We're not comfortable with [this problem] in the long term, but we have every reason to expect it will be rectified before the next election." In that case, OK, then;

3) And there are no plans to shelve the goddamn machines in favor of substitute paper ballots.

I don't live in Alexandria, Falls Church, or Charlottesvile. But if I did, I'd be calling my Board of Elections and demanding that they get off their asses and fix this problem -- either by getting their machine vendor to display Jim Webb's entire fucking name on their worthless machine or by printing paper ballots. Preferably ballots wide enough to contain that whopper of a name, "James H. "Jim" Webb."

Is is too much to ask for voting machines that work as well as, I don't know, a fucking toaster?