Rumors were circulated of massive Democratic vote fraud when in fact, in the whole state four cases occurred in the last eight years.
Requirements of voter i.d. are in place, but it is unclear what counts—not a passport, nor a Social Security card—but then again requirements vary from county to county
According to Mark Crispin Miller, Republicans spun the evidence provided by exit polls to claim that too many Democrats were questioned and not enough Republicans; maybe there were more Democrats out that day, he suggests—the turnout was unprecedented. The more voters there are, the more likely a Democrat is to win.
In another scene, the public is blocked by police from entering the building where a gubernatorial debate between Blackwell and Strickland, the Democratic candidate, is in progress.
Says Palast, the indy media are all that we have to counter the violations, with him dubiously holding the scepter
Enter an animated personified ballot to sing its own ballad--as long as there have been elections, there’s been corruption—it’s a free for all, it raps, invoking the title of the movie from one perspective (but we all aren’t free till the vote becomes a process grounded in ethics.)
Then along come the dude’s Post-its to knock down the ballot.
Most effective in this structure-selfconscious film.
Dude weighs all the Post-it evidence, and decides that one solution is citizen journalism; joins the film’s creator John Ennis; puts American Blackout on YouTube, which put it on front page, drawing hundreds of thousands of hits, enough to attract the likes of Wolf Blitzer (CNN) to document this effective weapon against those wolves.
Deciding that “video the vote” is the answer, Dude went to the Columbus polls, up at 5:30 to video: and amid all the same violations found in 2004, entered an October surprise (in addition to Britney’s divorce): Strickland won. There were just too many Democratic voters to confound all of Blackwell’s devices; it was then, too, that the conscientious Jennifer Brunner was elected to replace Blackwell in his former role and fight the incumbent corruption.
Taking up the ballade, Brad Friedman relates that the victory party for 30 new Democratic members of Congress came to a halt when it was realized that 40 to 50 had actually won--out of 3 million, 1 million provisional votes had been shunted. And we know who votes provisionally.
And there will be so many swing states in 2008; voters should be prepared for the onslaught and not be intimidated, adds Mark Crispin Miller.
The film ends as it began, with a colorful review of the full regalia of July 4, a celebration of the electoral process, for which so many lives were sacrificed. You can either jump into the parade or stand on the sidelines
Take up the former Diebold’s motto not to rest. The real Independence Day is Election day; it’s up to us to keep on spreading the word: If democr isn’t free for all, then it isn’t free for me. I’ll do my best. What are you going to do?
Get out your cameras, not your handkerchiefs.
Free for All’s producer, Richard Rey Pérez also produced Unprecedented (a privilege it was for me to review that film too, about the Florida 2000 disaster)
