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Goes far beyond the controversy of the 2000 election and the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court rulingCALL IT DEMOCRACY takes a serious look at the history of Presidential elections and the Electoral College. Unlike films which wonder “why,” CALL IT DEMOCRACY presents historical and non-partisan analysis of both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections and tells amazing stories such as the 1960 Kennedy v. Nixon recounts, the attempts by Segregationist Third Party Candidate George Wallace to manipulate the Electoral College in 1968, and President Ford’s consideration about whether he should overturn the election results in close states. Those and other elections prior to the 20th century show that “one man one vote” is not always a guarantee if the other party is in power. The film features interviews with Senator Birch Bayh, author of two constitutional Amendments (the only American to do so since the Founding Fathers), prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Federal Judge Richard A. Posner, Mary Frances Berry, Chairperson of the US Commission on Civil Rights, Rep. John Conyers, and Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
In a sweeping study of how elections are controlled by local election administrators, Call it Democracy argues that the Electoral College directly impacted 2002’s Help America Vote Act which tried to eliminate punch card ballots but brought us electronic voting.
 Call it Democracy
Release Year: 2005 Duration: 86 min Availability: Worldwide CALL IT DEMOCRACY takes a serious look at the history of Presidential elections and the Electoral College. Unlike films which wonder “why,” CALL IT DEMOCRACY presents historical and non-partisan analysis of both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections and tells amazing stories such as the 1960 Kennedy v. Nixon recounts, the attempts by Segregationist Third Party Candidate George Wallace to manipulate the Electoral College in 1968, and President Ford’s consideration about whether he should overturn the election results in close states. Those and other elections prior to the 20th century show that “one man one vote” is not always a guarantee if the other party is in power. The film features interviews with Senator Birch Bayh, author of two constitutional Amendments (the only American to do so since the Founding Fathers), prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Federal Judge Richard A. Posner, Mary Frances Berry, Chairperson of the US Commission on Civil Rights, Rep. John Conyers, and Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
In a sweeping study of how elections are controlled by local election administrators, Call it Democracy argues that the Electoral College directly impacted 2002’s Help America Vote Act which tried to eliminate punch card ballots but brought us electronic voting.
Director Matthew Kohn Executive Producers Dan Efram Udy Epstein Eddy Gilbert Herch Joan Linder Brian McNelis Cinematographers Matt Boyd Yervant Der Partough Laurel Greenberg Valery Lyman Silvia Stoyanova Editors Chris Boscardin Matthew Kohn Music Alberto Caruso Featuring Sen. Birch Bayh, Vincent Bugliosi, Alan Dershowitz, David Greenberg, Marci A. Hamilton, Judge Richard A. Posner, Jamin Raskin, Jeffrey Rosen, Greg Palast, John Nichols, Mary Frances Berry, Rep. John Conyers, Miles Rappaport, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Kim Alexander, Doug Chapin, David L. Dill, Ted Selker, Thomas Wilkey Report a Technical Issue If you're having any difficulties viewing the film or have any playback-related technical questions, contact us using our general feedback page.
Comments Posted 06/21/09 by A
No country in the world defines a police stste more than US.
Posted 03/22/09 by Matt (the director of the film)
Craig’s comments below are interesting. However, the film relates that if the Electoral College was abolished, we would still have problems counting each and every vote. In fact, fraud might be more difficult to trace. That point was made at the end of the film by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. As for the other argument that the Electoral College protects small states - it’s the only argument most people who support the Electoral College know. It’s hardly the most interesting one. I find it interesting that if there was a terrorist attack on a particular voting date and a state were not able to vote, the state would still be able to vote when the College met weeks later. Unfortunately not every inmportant point could be made in this film, and I had to cut out so much interesting material. Thank you for your thoughts. M Posted 01/22/09 by Craig
This film is two different films in one. It confuses the debate over the merits of the electoral college with voting irregularities and outright voting fraud. These two have a relationship, but doing away with the electoral college won’t have any effect on flawed and discriminatory voting practices. The film also doesn’t address at all the advantages of the electoral college. Those in broad strokes are two: first, the electoral college system helps protect states with small populations (but in some cases large land mass) from being dominated by states with large populations (in some cases with small land mass) and second, with a direct vote, third, fourth, fifth etc. party candidates can so fracture the percentages that no single candidate gets a majority. The result of this last point is that the House of Representatives would decide who will be president. Does that sound like a better system? The point is as regards the film is that the filmmaker didn’t give these counter-arguments to Sen. Bayh’s push for direct voting. The main thrust of the film was about voting shenanigans. That was cogent and complete. Frankly, that should have been the only topic here since as I’ve stated the electoral college issue wasn’t nearly as well fleshed out or even explained to sufficient degree. |
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