Hacking Democracy

Directed by
    Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels

2006 (Youtube 9 of 9)--The disturbingly shocking HBO documentary Hacking Democracy bravely tangles with our nation’s ills at the heart of democracy.

The film the Diebold corporation doesn’t want you to see, this revelatory journey follows tenacious Seattle grandmother Bev Harris and her band of extraordinary citizen-activists as they set out to ask one simple question: How does America count its votes?

From Florida and California to Ohio and Washington State, filmmakers Simon Ardizzone, Robert Cohen, and Russell Michaels starkly reveal a broken system riddled with secrecy, incompetent election officials, and electronic voting machines that can be programmed to steal elections.

Equipped only with a powerful sense of righteous outrage, the activists take on the voting machine industry, exposing alarming security holes in America’s trusted voting machines.

They even go dumpster diving at a county election official’s office in Florida, uncovering incendiary evidence of miscounted votes.

But proving our votes can be stolen without a trace culminates in a duel between Diebold voting machines and a computer hacker from Finland--with America’s democracy at stake.

Hacking Democracy takes a nonpartisan, clear-eyed look at the secrecy, cronyism, and incompetence of elections in present-day America as it captures a citizen’s movement intent on taking back elections—and democracy itself. “It is hard to imagine… a documentary this season that is more important to the civic life of the nation—let alone one that is so compelling and ultimately moving”--(Baltimore Sun).

******
This documentary obviously has been around for several years. If you’ve missed it, now is a perfect time to view online or secure a copy for posterity while visiting this site. In any event, it’s time to “gear up” for the upcoming elections and steel ourselves for Republican  shenanigans.--Editor

Do you know Piyush?

Piyush “Bobby” Jindal--Took the name "Bobby" from a ‘70s sitcom! How lame is that? His sainted mother was probably so proud as she gazed down at her newborn and announced: “Oh, he’s so beautiful, he looks like a Piyush!” (A proud Indian name, meaning drink of the gods.) And thus named her new son. How hurt she must have been to later learn Piyush was ashamed of his name and, indeed, his Indian heritage.