The second volume of Robert A. Caro's series of biographies on Lyndon Johnson contains a picture that says much about America's struggles with the concept of democracy.

It's 1948, and five men, dressed variously in Texas-style hats or fedoras cocked toward the backs of their heads, are smiling around the hood of a car. On that hood is a box clearly marked "Precinct 13." These were Johnson's men in Jim Wells County, Texas, and the ballot box in question held the key to Johnson's narrow victory over Coke Stevenson in the primary election for the Senate. With Johnson trailing statewide by 157 votes and virtually every precinct reporting, that box was suddenly found to contain 200 more votes for Johnson than originally announced.

Someone had added a loop to the 7 in 795, and now the future president had 995 votes, sending him on a long road that would lead to the White House.

The amazing thing is that there isn't much hint of sheepishness in the smiles in that photo.

Today things are different, of course. Right?

You'll pardon me if I don't jump on that bandwagon. My guess is few people have gone broke underestimating humanity's willingness to cheat.

Only 10 years ago, the Republican who lost the race for governor in Maryland was able to produce a list of dead voters who had miraculously cast ballots for her opponent. And then, of course, we have the example of 2000 in Florida. Maybe no one cheated there, but a lot of people sure wanted to get their hands on the ballots for president, with all those hanging and dimpled chads.

Ever since, we've been hearing about the need to bring voting into the 21st century, as if willfully ignoring the fact that cheaters in every other endeavor seem to find the 21st century much easier pickings than the previous one.

Or maybe they want us to believe hackers, virus-writers and identity thieves will consider elections off-limits out of principle.

Utah announced recently that it won't be making an upgrade this year. The fancy electronic voting monitors will have to wait. People here will find the same old punch-card ballots and chads they have come to know for generations.

This boring piece of news happens to be a very good sign. Public officials here have more than an ounce of common sense, apparently.

Democracy's dirty little secret is that no one has yet invented a voting method that is truly error-free. And certainly, no one has invented one that is impervious to cheaters.