“Election Day” 2004 still relevant on Election Day 2008

On Nov. 4, when millions of Americans cast their votes for the next president of the United States, at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema there will be a reminder that this voting process doesn’t always go so smoothly.

This Election Day, the Midwest Independent Film Festival will be screening “Election Day,” a documentary that followed voters on Election Day in 2004 and examined problems in the American voting system. Several camera crews in locations throughout the country followed 11 people to illustrate what happens when ordinary Americans visit the polls on Election Day.

A volunteer on the Pine Ridge Reservation prepares to mobilize Native American voters on Nov. 2, 2004.

Photo credit: Alan Jacobsen

Although the film takes place four years ago it was released last year, winning an Official Selection Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. The documentary also appeared on PBS’s “P.O.V.,” a show dedicated to airing independent non-fiction films.

Midwest Independent Film Director Mike McNamara said screening the award-winning film on Election Day was a “no brainer.” Besides several locations in the documentary that take place in the Midwest and the filmmakers’ ties to Chicago – Director Katy Chevigny worked in the city for several years, and Producer Maggie Bowman currently resides in Chicago – McNamara said the film’s relevance is especially important today.

A pollworker on Nov. 2, 2004, labels a spoiled ballot envelope at the end of the night.

Photo credit: Kristen Johnson

“This is such a critical time for this country and the world,” he said. “The film really captures the spirit of the voters. It’s a cross-section of Americans that hopefully, ultimately, make a decision on who leads this country of ours.”

The concept for this film came in the summer of 2004. Chevigny wanted to know what was on Americans’ minds following the controversial presidential election four years earlier. During the 2000 election, Florida drew national attention when thousands of ballots were disqualified due to voter error and computer technicalities. Similarly, more than 120,000 punch card ballots in Cook County did not record a presidential vote, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times from 2001.

“The 2000 election brought to life lots of problems with the voting system,” Chevigny said. “It was a wake-up call to mainstream America that our election process wasn’t working as well as it should.”

“Election Day” observes many of these problems in action from different perspectives. Republican poll-watcher Jim Fuchs was at a polling station in Chicago when he held up a punch card and said, “I don’t know how many people voted thinking they were poking holes, but none were poked.”

Australian international elections observer Shanta Martin was in different parts of St. Louis to determine if polls met international standards. She talked to a frustrated woman who stood in line for more than two hours to vote. “I was born in this country. My right is to be able to vote. This is intimidating. No telling how many people have left because of this situation,” the woman said.

In Shaker Heights, Ohio, several volunteers and workers at a polling station attempt to locate and recount missing votes.

“The problems our characters encountered showed that we haven’t made a lot of progress since the 2000 election,” Bowman said. “There are still a lot of lessons to learn.”

Several of these issues that surfaced in the 2000 and 2004 elections are just as relevant today as then; Florida is still having problems with their ballots, and absentee voting for military overseas has become a huge logistics problem.

“The film exposed a lot of problems with the election process that should not be happening,” Bowman said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, but the cameras brought back a story we couldn’t ignore, and it’s that our election system is broken.”

Although the film exposes disparity in the voting process, there are several people in the film who do more than stand in line to cast a vote. In Cincinnati, Dan “Buzz” Deters’ brother is a Republican write-in candidate for county prosecutor, so he hands pencils to voters as they go to the polls.

“There are hundreds of people devoted to making their vote count and helping others’ votes count,” Chevigny said. “The film is not just a cynical message. Things are broken, but we’re working to get them fixed.”

“Election Day” is part of the First Tuesdays with the Midwest Independent Film Festival. The film screens on Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m., with a pre-show cocktail reception beginning at 6 p.m. at Landmark Century Centre Cinema. The post-screening reception is at Forno Diablo at 433 W. Diversey and includes a Q&A session with Producer Maggie Bowman. Admission to the film including entry into all of the night’s events is $10. Visit www.midwestfilm.com for more details.

Watch the trailer for "Election Day:"





Edited 10/18/08 at 3:28 p.m.