| Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections | 
 enlarge | Director: David Earnhardt
Actors: John Conyers, Cynthia Mckinney, Bev Harris, Brad Friedman
Studio: The Disinformation Company
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $9.96 (50%)
Buy New/Used from $8.08
Avg. Customer Rating:   (16 reviews)
Sales Rank: 41978
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 81 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 47
UPC: 826262004798
EAN: 0826262004798
ASIN: B0019M8OFG
Release Date: August 26, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
UNCOUNTED is an explosive documentary that shows how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 - and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election. This controversial film examines in factual, logical, and yet startling terms how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S. Noted computer programmers, statisticians, journalists, and experienced election officials provide the irrefutable proof.
UNCOUNTED shares well documented stories about the spine-chilling disregard for the right to vote in America. In Florida, computer programmer Clint Curtis is directed by his boss to create software that will 'flip' votes from one candidate to another. In Utah, County Clerk Bruce Funk is locked out of his office for raising questions about security flaws in electronic voting machines. Californian Steve Heller gets convicted of a felony after he leaks secret documents detailing illegal activities committed by a major voting machine company. And Tennessean entrepreneur, Athan Gibbs, finds verifiable voting a hard sell in America and dies before his dream of honest elections can be realized.
UNCOUNTED is a wakeup call to all Americans. Beyond increasing public awareness, the film inspires greater involvement in fixing a broken electoral system.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Voter Fraud is Alive and Well November 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Voting is a matter of simple mathematics. The victory in any election is supposed to go to the candidate who has the largest number of votes, pure and simple. But precisely because voting is such a simple matter of tallying up ballots, the act of voter fraud is not that difficult to come by, and this is especially true during the electronic age when the outcome of an election can be altered significantly with the some simple altercation of computer software.
Uncounted is a documentary about the problems with accuracy in voting and specifically the fraudulent activities that took place in the 2004 presidential election. Many authors have written books about the 2004 election and the final vote count that favored Bush by a significant margin over Kerry. This documentary continues this theme of fraud, exposing some of the tactics used by determined election officials, election volunteers, and even the candidates themselves who will stop at nothing to make sure victory is declared on Election Day.
Voter fraud can take on many forms and several methods are described in this documentary. Purging voters from the rolls of eligible voters; reducing the number of machines at specific polling places to create long lines; falsifying or deceiving the public about election/campaign information; and tampering with electronic voting machines are among several ways that a candidate and/or his workers and supporters can rig an election. Among these, the most startling is electronic voting machine fraud and this type of activity receives much coverage in this documentary. Because there is no paper trail produced by these voting machines, there is no way to prove or disprove how an individual actually voted. A few clicks of a mouse are sometimes all that is necessary to create a computer program that will switch the outcome of an election.
What I like best about Uncounted is its use of expert testimony, citizen testimony, and numeric facts to back its claims. People like U.S. Representative John Conyers, U.S. Rep Jim Cooper, former Green Party Presidential candidate David Cobb, and many others come forward to challenge the use of electronic voting machines due to the ease at which fraud can be committed. Ordinary citizens also speak out about their own experience with voting in 2004 and they point out the many tactics that were used to prevent them from casting a vote. There are also plenty of statistical facts presented in this movie and many will shock the average viewer. For example, there were some counties in 2004 that showed a final tally of presidential votes for Bush that exceeded the total registered voters in the county. If this isn't proof that something is wrong with the system, then I don't know what is.
Uncounted is a strong documentary with many pieces of evidence that point to obvious wrongdoing but one thing that could have made the documentary a little stronger would have been the inclusion of more instances of fraud that favored Democrats. As it stands, most all of the fraud uncovered in this documentary is fraud that favored Republicans, making it look like conservatives are the only ones attempting to rig elections. The various speakers in the documentary make it very clear that the issue of voter fraud is non- partisan and what matters is that everyone has the opportunity to vote and that votes are calculated fairly. I believe the different speakers are sincere in their desires, but the documentary could have helped to back them up and added to its own credibility if it had included more examples across the board and wasn't so lopsided against Republicans.
Election fraud is certainly something that needs to be taken seriously. Voting is a great privilege, but if we are prevented from voting in the first place or if our vote isn't counted accurately, then can we really claim to be a true democracy? I think not, and Uncounted is a very good documentary for its exposure of these different forms of voter fraud, its use as a citizen rallying tool, and its general educational value. Something needs to be done to ensure that every vote is counted and counted accurately, and voter awareness and the resulting citizen activism is the place to start.
 ONE PERSON! ONE VOTE! October 12, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a documentary about the votes that go 'uncounted' for various reasons during elections. There are a variety of reasons, some through negligence and human error and others through deliberate attempts to sabotage our voting system. The story is mostly told from the Democratic' viewpoint, although it does try to be impartial. Obviously, the Democrats have been on the losing end of the national elections this century until 2006. The Republicans have no incentive to tell the story. Stripping all the politics away, this is a report about how susceptible our system, especially the electronic voting machines, is to to fraud. It's almost unthinkable that we are using a system that virtually has no check and balances to detect fraud. The same people, Diebold, that manufacture our ATM machines and verify who we are before it dispenses or takes our money and then gives us a receipt to verify the transaction, are responsible for much of the electronic voting equipment used in America. They alone have access to the computer code that control the machines so the government can't even check to see if the code has been altered after an election. It has been proven that these machines are easily rigged, yet they cannot provide equipment even as good as the ATM machines we use every day. Those with high blood pressure and heart disease may want to beware before watching this film. It will make you angry that our Democracy rests on such fragile legs and that we cannot be assured that the real winners of our elections actually get into office. The one check and balance is the exit polling that is done on election day. In both the 2004 & 2006 elections, the exit polls were significantly different from the tabulated results. Statistically, they were way beyond the margins of error from the final vote totals. Who was wrong and what went wrong? You decide. A secure and honest system is all that lies between us and the regimes that govern the countries we so oppose. www.lusreviews.blogspot.com
Disturbing, Fascinating. Makes You Think. September 24, 2008
So did your vote count in 2000? 2004? 2006? Will it count in 2008? "Uncounted" is a warning that the American electoral process is being hijacked and manipulated to serve certain interests, going so far as to simply erase or even "flip" votes. The concept of stolen elections, rigged votes, manipulated numbers is something we like to associate with countries like Mexico, but "Uncounted" argues, and sometimes almost convinces you, that in the United States votes are not sacred or safe.
Director David Earnhardt wastes no time in making his point, his film is not so much an actual documentary with a narrative as a full throttle warning to viewers. Using news clips and interviews, Earnhardt attempts to chronicle an apparent culture of fraud that can be traced back to the controversial 2000 presidential election. "Uncounted" argues that the new era of vote rigging depends on various factors, including technological and racial. Witnesses and even former company employees describe how electronic voting machines can be hacked without anyone noticing, one former programmer even describes how a top Florida politician literally asked for a mechanism to "flip" votes, his excuse? To keep the rival Democrats from cheating.
"Uncounted" is successful in creating an atmosphere of dread, sometimes it pushes a little too far into "JFK" territory, mostly when it dwelves into the idea that one man who pioneered a new, more secure voting machine system suddenly died in a car crash just when his invention was taking full flight. Some of the other stories however, are indeed disturbing. One local politician describes how he was fired for demanding more transperancy from the company supplying voting machines to his county. Company lawyers paid a visit to government offices, and soon the guy was basically forced to resign. Another individual who uncovered documents proving voting machines were being tampered with is under probation and heavily fined. These stories are told convincingly and give the film a sense of urgency. In a time when our economy is now facing disaster due to private interests, one does have to wonder how private entities are affecting our elections.
There is a successful chronology of events and testimonies, Earnhardt never confuses the viewer and he knows how to connect what his subjects are reporting to major national events. Events like the 2006 elections will come across with a clearer understanding.
The film's only flaw is that it could have done maybe a little more, we spend an hour and fifteen minutes with the same subjects and after a while the same topics are revisited almost a little too routinely. One wonders if this is all the voter fraud activists have. The evidence is indeed compelling, but you're left wanting to see more. After the 2008 election this film might lose relevancy, it needs a broader scope.
Still, "Uncounted" is an urgent, interesting, important film to look at as we prepare to vote this November. It provides some useful tools to stay alert as we head again to the polls. For those who were not so aware about the raging debate of how safe our voting system is, this film provides the right kinds of questions to ask, and the correct warning signals to stay alert for.
Scary! September 22, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This documentary presents a very sobering view of the vulnerability of the election process in this country. It presents chilling evidence that the outcome of the last two presidential elections may have been influenced by a variety of means.
People who try to discredit this film as "paid for by the DNC" or dismiss it as "liberal propaganda" clearly don't get the message, and all I can say is: Wake up!
This is not about any particular party, this is about the danger of private corporations potentially manipulating the outcome of elections in this country. All parties and all voters need to be concerned about this.
Call to Action? Or Call to Distraction? September 18, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Regardless of your politics, it's undeniable that national elections have become big business, and the greatest message presented by UNCOUNTED is that, arguably, a technology that accurately accepts, tabulates, and totals votes cast may yet be out of reach for the Great Society ... with the notable exception of good old-fashioned paper ballots ... and UNCOUNTED, a new documentary by David Earnhardt takes great strides through measured bipartisanship to present this possibly grim reality.
Thankfully, UNCOUNTED doesn't simply focus on the 2000 Presidential election's battleground states (Ohio and Florida), and I was presently surprised by Earnhardt's attempt to maintain a level of impartiality in presenting some (certainly not all) of the information here. I've read a wealth of material on the Florida elections, specifically, and I was expecting dramatic overkill or misrepresentation of people, places, and events already healthily explored by the mainstream media. (Yes, I'm comfortable admitting that I don't quite believe an election was stolen, but I'm always willing to be shown the error of my ways.) Some of what happened in Florida CAN BE chalked up to human error on both sides of teh aisle, and, after having watched HBO's recent political film exploring what was largely the Democratic perspective, I really wasn't up for more of the same. But UNCOUNTED surprised me to some extent. In fact, I feel UNCOUNTED works best when it is exploring the controversy associated to electronic voting -- what it is, how it works, how it's possible, etc. While I'm quite certainly a wealth of the information presented here was largely available via certain media outlets, there was plenty of data regarding machine errors and whistleblowing that I haven't seen anywhere else. (You can puruse my other reviews to see that I do frequent conspiracy literature!)
A reasonable person can easily conclude that voting fraud has happened, but I don't feel that UNCOUNTED significantly establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that any one party has perpetrated it. Honest questions are raised; associations are pointed out; a call to action is challenged by the director; and it's all handled with (mostly) professionalism and courtesy. Knowing what I do about organizations like ACORN and others, it's clear that there are other types of voting fraud not explored by this documentary, but the director never explores fraud issues before 2000 with any significance. 2004 gets some discovery here, and 2006 is largely passed over, except for the subtle message that exit polling data still didn't match actual vote counts. I also found it curious that, despite the possibility of electronic error in states where Al Gore won, there was no real examination of whether similar errors could have occured in states he won ... but that's a lesser point.
However, a reality check for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, independents, and others still remains to be underscored at the film's end: despite the position taken by the national news organizations -- that being that the actual vote counts should match the respective news organizations' exit polling data -- is, debatably, pure farce. Research companies have already shown at great lengths that people are less inclined to be entirely honest with pollsters in matters of morality, preferences, and (yes, I'll say it ...) even race; and no exit poll previously created OR yet-to-be designed will ever account for this immeasureable variable. For many -- even those who don't worship 'the State -- feel that the casting of a vote is 'sacred,' and there will always exist in some folks the desire to keep that one simple act between himself and his ballot ... and perhaps that's best for all involved.
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