voting problems

I'm trying to figure out why rain and power can have an affect on voting. Voters in Virginia standing out in the rain touched and dripped on paper ballots causing problems with those votes. In California, power problems stopped voting. Can't we figure out a foolproof way to vote where voters touch as little as possible? The Simpsons even poked fun of it in their Halloween episode this year.

Before today (I registered in a new town recently and voted here for the first time), I've either voted with a fairly simple machine, or by an absentee ballot. The voting machine showed me the questions and had a small lever or tab-like piece to use to mark my vote. I was behind a curtain in the booth, and the curtain was controlled by a big lever-type device to open and close. I mark my choices (I never did a write-in), and pull the big lever to both open the curtain and mark my vote. Simple. I don't know how the votes are counted doing that, but I don't remember any power supplies or pieces of paper I had to deal with. The only way it could go wrong is if someone stuck bubble gum on one of the voting tabs.

CNN.com posted a picture of someone in a booth that is similar to what I describe with the tabs.

Today, I voted in a device similar to what Homer Simpson used in this week's episode.