One recent evening, I watched two films, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and "How Ohio Pulled It Off."
One was long, hard to follow and an exercise in computer-generated boredom.
The other was engrossing and just plain scary.
Yes, "Pirates" was boring. The second film was a documentary whose premise is then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell did all he could to get President Bush re-elected by sabotaging Ohio's election.
The documentary definitely leans to the left, although some bipartisan organizations are included and we hear from a couple of token Republicans, who deny any voter tampering, but offer no proof.
The filmmakers offer lots of proof of fraud.
For one thing, we see long, long lines of people trying to vote in tradional African-American areas. There aren't sufficient voting machines, some don't work and their accuracy can be questioned. People in the Republican-dominated wealthy Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington have no trouble voting.
One man describes how an individual walked along the line of waiting voters and said if any are felons, they will be immediately arrested after voting.
A woman at one of several meetings held after the electon of 2004 talks about pressing the buttom for John Kerry, then seeing it jump to George Bush. She screamed and when a poll worker ran over, the worker said, "Oh, it's been doing that all morning."
The documentary chronicles how Blackwell sent out absentee ballots, then declared the ballots must be of a certain weight. Some of the ballots he sent out weren't of the proper weight.
We hear about Diebold election systems. The documentary quotes a man who is a friend of Diebold's founder and a Republican supporter. The man, a computer expert, said the machines can easily be manipulated to "flip" voting results and there is no way to tell.
One of the most revealing aspects is the exit polling done by news media. The media goes to key precincts and asks like every fifth person who they voted for. This is how networks declare winners minutes after the polls close.
In the past, these exit polls have been accurate to 1 percent. This time, the polls show Kerry with an 11-percent lead. At no time have exit polls been so wrong.
One expert said if exit pollers were totally inaccurate as alleged, it should be on both sides. But that wasn't the case. Votes exit pollers gave to Kerry eventually went to Bush.
If you are a Bush Republican, this one-sided documentary will get you steamed. If you are a Democrat, what Blackwell and the gang supposedly did to the election will get you steamed.
One of my favorite parts is when U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich says Ohio has been a state since 1803 and after 200 years you'd think we would get the election right.
"You'd think," he repeats for effect.
The documentary was written and directed by Charla Barker, Matthew Kraus and Mariana Quiroga and originates from Ohio University.
It ends with Blackwell's thrashing two years later as he runs for governor. If this documentary is a morality play, villan Blackwell's loss is his comeuppance.
There have been screenings of the film, mostly in the Athens area. I was able to get a rough, unmixed version on DVD for review purposes. Kraus said attempts to set up screenings in the Youngstown-Cleveland area are being made.
Star Beacon Print Edition: 6/15/2007
