But Congress reacted to Florida by passing the Help America Vote Act, which, among other things, mandated that elections be completely accessible to the handicapped. After a lot of research, he decided Utah should contract with Diebold to install electronic voting machines.

That has been a controversial decision in some quarters. California's secretary of state has restricted the use of Diebold machines in February's presidential primary there because she said a security review found they were susceptible to hacking, according to the Fresno Bee.

Herbert has no such worries. He said Utah's machines are secure and under lock and key. Besides, you either trust him or you don't.

"Any system is only as good as the people who run the election," he said. "If you don't trust the people with the new equipment, you shouldn't trust them with the old push-paper ballots, either."

The vouchers issue makes Tuesday a rarity, of sorts. Special statewide elections don't happen often in Utah. We voted on bringing the Olympics here in 1989. In 1974, the state considered a land-use issue.

If all goes well, Mrs. Herbert will still be getting those questions about what it is, exactly, that her husband does.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com