There's also a movement - this goes back to writing letters to the editor and your congressman - to making Election Day a national holiday. And I really love that because I think that sends a really strong signal out about how important this day is. I think most people, myself included, feel that would make turnout just ramp up. It doesn't come without its problems because you have to figure out what do I do with the kids now, who takes care of [them]... but overall, most analysts see that it would really make a better situation, where more people could vote. And all these things help turnout, so that's a handful of suggestions.
In closing, is there anything we didn't cover that you would like to say or get out about the film?
I always ask that question, I like that question... Let's see how I do. [Laughs]. I never know the answer to that question; but I always ask it when I interview people...
I think it's important for people to pay attention to this issue because, really, we're in a time where all you have to do is look back to the 2000 election, the 2004, the 2006... even the 2002 election that we didn't look at in our film. And everything about every single one of those elections have lots of things that went wrong with them. And we didn't know as much; with each one of those, as citizens, we knew a little bit more. But the lesson from each one of those elections is that the likelihood for there to be monkey business, for lack of another word... you know, manipulation, lots of suppression, lots of people who want to vote but aren't allowed to vote or have to vote provisionally. The likelihood is extremely high. It's happened in the last two, and things haven't changed that much.
And the more people pay attention and consider that the vote - which I think people believe - is kind of a sacred act, but it's not guaranteed. Go into it with that frame of mind. If you think it's just gonna go fine in 2008, don't think that way. There's nothing in our recent history that shows it has; and frankly, in the whole history of our country. It's a scary time. And it's very easy to mess with results, with the electronic voting. So I just think the more aware people are, and the more that they encourage their leaders to look at it, encourage the media to look at it, talk to their friends about it, the more that makes elections accountable to ordinary citizens.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Your interview would be a lot more interesting if you hadn't stuck to nothing but softball questions and fawning on your subject.
I'd have liked to see you ask him if he had any evidence at all that any voting machines had ever been hacked during an election (there is none) and perhaps hit him with some questions about the hundreds of thousands of bogus registrations from ACORN and other leftist groups, or perhaps the cash for votes practices of Democrats in a number of southern states.
But I guess that wouldn't suit your agenda, just as the media avoids reporting on election fraud in general because they know that any unbiased and halfway thorough investigation will reveal so much more fraud from the left than the right that it would be embarassing.
Think about it. All this furor about voting machines, yet it is the city and county and state electoral bureaucracies which are dominated by Democrats which have been the main supporters of the use of these machines.
Partisans like the people who made this film have identified a legitimate problem, but they need to come to grips at some point with the reality that if there is fraud going on, it's much more likely to be their political allies who are doing it.
Dave
2 - David R. Perry
Dave,
I'm assuming that you haven't actually watched said movie. I would recommend it (it's available via Netflix, by the way; in case anyone here subscribes), as I found it very interesting, and many of the criticisms you mention are dealt with in more detail there. I was not attempting to rehash every point or claim of the film.
Granted, the film has an admittedly obvious leftist bent to it, but I think it's ridiculous to criticize the main thrust of the film, which deals with the need for more accountability and checks and balances in the voting process. That is something that only benefits a real democracy. Your quibble seems to be with "why" they're looking into it in the first place, which is less important.
If you'd like to ask your own questions, the production company seems fairly open to media inquiries. Perhaps you can help fill in the blanks of the discussion.
By the way, your critique would be more interesting if you didn't exhibit an obviously equal, but opposite, agenda. (Agendas come from both sides, you know.)
- DRP
3 - Dave Nalle
Well, I'd normally take a middle course, but when dealing with a partisan position I'm naturally inclined to take the opposite one.
I've done a lot of reading on the voting security issue == things like actual academic studies -- but there's so much propaganda out there that I'm reluctant to watch a film. The format is much easier to use for propaganda and distortion in the grand Michael Moore tradition.
These things are getting on cable, though. So when it does I'll be all over it.
Dave
4 - John
The bias is so overwhelmingly against Republicans that the film is self- discrediting.