Goes far beyond the controversy of the 2000 election and the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court ruling
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.
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
“CALL IT DEMOCRACY presents historical and non-partisan analysis of both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential election”
I need a rather large glass of water to swallow that one.
Notice the film does not mention the lower courts that tried
each of Gore’s legal challenges to the election. Each challenge was tried separately by judges, who were all appointed by and were themselves democrats with each ruling against Gore.
Definitely an inconvenient fact for the film makers.
Notice that report by the media consortium concluding that Bush won is not mentioned.
Definitely an inconvenient fact for the film makers. They
mention the report, but dare not quote it’s conclusions.
Notice we are not told about what sort of questions are before the court, but only treated to partisan analysis.
Thus the viewer has no idea that the canvassing boards had different “standards” for determing what constitutes a valid vote, that one particular county actually changed such determination several times in mid-count resulting in an unfair count.
Definitely an inconvenient fact for the film makers who after all, want you to believe they are interested in making sure every vote is counted; or was it counts?
The film makers are all too glad to muddy the waters here
so that they can tell you
1.) Florida was a travesty, and
2.) It’s comming to a voting booth near you.
While the film was titled Call it Democracy, it would have been more appropriately titled Call it Propaganda.
Posted 06/21/09 by A
No country in the world defines a police stste more than US.
no country in the world terrorizes its own citizens like USA.Along with terrorizing the world as a whole.
We are sinners in more ways than one. We are sinners, dividers , butchers , distorting the facts , control the media
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.
