Anne Applebaum - In ATMs we trust, but not in our voting

[zbdent]

To this, I always ask my question: "Would you deposit cash into an ATM and not want a receipt?"

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/2004/11/18/news/editorial/10212023.htm

WASHINGTON - When the ATM asks whether I want a receipt, I usually say no. When a Web site wants my credit card number, I usually say yes. When I pay bills online, there is no paper record of the transaction. In my failure to demand physical evidence when money changes hands, I am not very unusual. Most Americans now conduct at least some of their financial transactions without paper, or at least sleep happily knowing that others do. Yet when it comes to voting -- a far simpler and more straightforward activity than electronic bank transfers -- we suddenly become positively 19th century in our need for a physical record.

<snip>

Given our reliance on computerized accounting, the explanation for the American paranoia about computer voting cannot be rational. It must lie elsewhere, in some special part of the national psyche. Plenty of other nations are prone to conspiracy theories, of course: I've never forgotten a conversation I had with a Western-educated, business-suited Jordanian who explained to me that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and Euphrates rivers, the planned future borders of the Jewish state.

<snip>

My personal note: If computerized accounting gave the same error rate as the black box voting, the company would be out of business faster that you can say "Pentium chip - 2+2=3.99999999" or "Version 1.1"

[glitch]

1. Good Lord - I always ask for a receipt, and when I buy something on line I

save the order screen.
Just because this gal is sloppy doesn't mean we all have to be.
This article could've easily have been titled
"I Am A Moron, Why Aren't You?"

[benfranklin1776]

2. Good one and good point.

As the daily howler points out http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh111704.shtml her screed is laughable, since, duh, ATM's and bank statements provide a paper trail precisely so fraud cannot occur undetected. As Mr. Somerby rightly points out if the paper trail was not there it is highly likely money would suddenly start to disappear. Banking and retail transactions operate on the trust but verify prinicple. All-electronic voting does not.

On edit: So asking for a receipt is just "so 19th century." I suppose blind, idiotic trust is 21st century?
What a complete buffoon.

[glitch]

3. Ooo- Somerby has her pegged? Must read. Thanks for posting!

I wish he'd have his own radio show, or at least a segment like Paul Krugman and Joe Conason.

[FormerOstrich]

4. I can almost guarantee you would

chose to have that receipt printed if you walked up to the ATM and deposited a wad of cash. Other transactions have their own trail with canceled checks or cash-in-hand.

Other on-line payment processing generates receipts. They are typically not "printed" but that's because we are storing them on our personal hard drive. We have the receipt but it may not be on paper.

This person knows not what they are speaking of.

[Cadence]

5. This isn't a correct analogy

because I doubt she would do her banking if she wasn't sure she COULD look at some auditable record. Would she be so bold if the bank wouldn't provide her access to see her account online or a list of her transactions at all? Instead they said "trust us"?

Plus the banking industry isn't run by partisan corporate hacks with no accountability and her money is insured.

I wonder if she would be so gung ho to hand her finances over to computerized accounting alone if Ken Lay was in charge.

Her point is ridiculous. I'll bet she'll change her tune if she's ever a victim of identity theft.

[zbdent]

6. I thought it hilarious that she "trusted" a web site with her credit card#

I am a computer geek, and I've only used my credit card, I think, twice over the internets ( ;) ).

[CBHagman]

7. Only YOU can prevent narcissism, Ms. Applebaum!

Oh, goody. Just what the world needs -- another self-absorbed writer for the op-ed pages. Just because she doesn't bother with receipts, the rest of us are deemed paranoid.

Then again, it's a sad recent trend at the Post -- the complete dismissal of any concerns about electronic voting as paranoia, devotion to conspiracy theories, etc. The tone they've adopted is downright snotty. One can only imagine what the ombudsman's inbox looks like this week...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Obviously she never had her bank fail to credit a $200 ATM deposit

Suddenly I was bouncing checks all over town and didn't know why. When I asked to see my records (this was before online banking), I noticed that they had not credited the $200 deposit. Fortunately, I had the ATM receipt and the stub from the $200 check--i.e. a paper trail, and the bank was forced to write letters of explanation to all the stores where I had bounced checks.

That was a crucial lesson for me.