When Joe deposited his check at the bank, he was in for a surprise.
    "What do you mean 'no receipt?'" asked Joe. "I've always gotten a receipt for my transactions here."
    "Not anymore," said the teller politely. "We've gone completely electronic.  Just go to our web site.  It has all the transactions there."
    "But I want a receipt," whined Joe. "It makes me feel secure."
    "Sorry, sir," said the teller. "We don't give them anymore.  Too expensive."
    "But what if something goes wrong, and my deposit isn't recorded?" Joe objected. "How will I be able to prove that I actually made it?"
    The teller shrugged his shoulders.  "You can talk to Mr. Jenkins, the manager, if you like," he said.

    "Right," said Mr. Jenkins. "No more receipts."
    "But I like receipts," Joe repeated.  "What happens if the system eats my deposit?"
     "That won't happen," said Mr. Jenkins. "Don't you trust me?"
    "It isn't that I don't trust you," said Joe. "It's just that I won't have any way of proving that I made my deposit, if you don't give me a paper receipt.  You know, when you do things like this it makes it appear that you're planning to steal people's money, because this kind of record keeping would make that very easy, whereas a simple printed receipt would make it almost impossible."
    Mr. Jenkins stood up, turned his back on Joe, stuck his fingers in his ears, and began to chant loudly.  "La, la, la, la, la!" chanted Mr. Jenkins.
    "You see," continued Joe, "you don't appear to be listening to me."
    "La, la, la, la, la!" chanted Mr. Jenkins.
    "I'm not saying I don't trust you ...  Um, exactly.  It's just that there's this appearance of intended fraud."
    "La, la, la, la, la!" chanted Mr. Jenkins.
    "Ok, maybe I don't trust you a little ..."

    Joe did not get his receipt.  Nor did he get a bank statement.  However, when he looked at the bank's web site, he did see a list of his bank transactions.  Only, ... something didn't seem quite right.  His balance seemed a bit off.  In the bank's favor.
    So, off he went to talk to Mr. Jenkins again.
    "Mr. Jenkins," said Joe. "My checking account balance seems to be a bit off."
    "Let me see," said Mr. Jenkins, bringing up the bank's web site. "Nope.  All the numbers add up.  It's all right there in pleasing pastel colors."
    "The numbers on the screen add up," explained Joe, "but not all the numbers are on the screen.  A deposit I made wasn't recorded at all."
    "If it's not on the screen, you didn't make it," said Mr. Jenkins.
    "Now, this is exactly what I warned you about before," complained Joe. "I asked what would happen if something screwed up and a transaction were lost, and ..."
    "No transactions were lost," said Mr. Jenkins. "See?  Right there on the screen.  If it were lost, it would have showed up on the screen."
    "But that's exactly what wouldn't have happened," countered Joe. "Look, I asked about this very thing, and I warned you that it would look like a deliberate fraud."
    Mr. Jenkins stood up.
    "And now it has happened," said Joe.
    Mr. Jenkins turned around.
    "And it certainly looks deliberate."
    Mr. Jenkins put his fingers in his ears.
    "And there are no receipts to prove what happened, one way or another."
    "La, la, la, la, la!" chanted Mr. Jenkins.

Which is precisely why I will always believe that the 2004 election was fraudulent.  It would have been easy to verify the electronic vote, but the Republican leadership, with no reason given, killed the bill that would have done it.  Verifiable voting prevents cheating.  It is in the interest of anyone who believes in democracy.  There is only one reason for someone to oppose it.  Welcome to totalitarianism.