Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections explores the many different ways in which elections in the United States can and supposedly have been manipulated and sometimes flat out directly altered or falsified. There are several different methods explored here.
1. Polling locations in areas that are known to vote in a certain way (such as lower class or African American communities more often swaying towards Democrats over Republicans) are given fewer machines and resources, or sometimes even have physical obstacles that keep people from being able to get in to vote or forcing them to wait so long that many give up and go home.
2. Laws and procedures are miscommunicated to poll workers leading them to turn away people who have a right to vote based on erroneous criteria. Or causing them to vote "provisionally" which are votes that area apparently often never counted. Again this is usually only done in areas known to vote in a certain way.
3. New electronic voting machines are not secure or reliable. The software used is not only open to tampering to allow people with relatively minimal hacking skills to change the data. Not only that, but there is evidence that the makers of the machines themselves implemented these features specifically in order to alter the votes themselves because of their political views and connections. Diebold is the company most often referenced here.
These are the three major ways I remember them discussing, but there were several others. It's clear that most of the arguments are that the perpetrators of these crimes have been Republicans. However it is often made clear that these crimes could be committed by any political party, and the issue itself should be a fundamental concern to all Americans who support our system of government. For the idea that our entire government is based on elected officials, or people appointed by elected officials then being able to trust the voting system 100% is crucial. If you believe many of the people in this film, then it is clear from statistics that the last several elections have been greatly falsified. Votes have been flat out changed or incorrectly recorded.
There are a lot of passionate people here, but they also point out how such an important issue is so ignored by mainstream media. Maybe to question our voting system seems tabu or somehow almost into the realm of zany conspiracy theory stuff. To question that the United States of America, a beacon of democracy has a deeply flawed and manipulated voting system is not something many people want to hear. Maybe because some people feel like it's the only real right or say they have, and if they can't trust that system, then they don't even have any say to fix it. I can understand that feeling. I felt kind of powerless watching this documentary. I felt good that there were people out there thinking about this issue and trying to fight for my rights. And the documentary is rare in that it presents a social problem but then actually gives ways in which viewers can positively respond (at least I think it was this movie that did that...).
I don't know if this was much of a review of the film. More like a summary or recap. But if this sounds like something you'd be interested in hearing more about, and you probably should, then by all means watch this film.
Rating: 8/10