Electoral Dysfunction

Episode 1 of 1

This documentary uses humor to take an irreverent - but nonpartisan -- look at voting in America. The film stars political humorist Mo Rocca, a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, a panelist on NPR's hit quiz show Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me! and a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The film opens as Rocca makes an eye-opening discovery: the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right to vote. He sets out to learn why the Founding Fathers deliberately omitted the right to vote from the Constitution -- and to understand the consequences of this decision. His quest leads him to Indiana, which has the strictest voting laws in the country. He meets two impassioned local activists -- Republican Dee Dee Benkie of Versailles and Democrat Mike Marshall of North Vernon -- who take him inside their efforts to turn out every vote. As he progresses on his journey, Rocca gets to know a former felon who mistakenly believed she was disenfranchised for life; attends the meeting of Indiana's delegation to the Electoral College; critiques ballot design with Todd Oldham; and encounters a range of activists, experts and election administrators, along with some highly opinionated third graders, who offer commentary on how voting works -- or doesn't work -- in America.

Previously Aired

Day
Time
Channel
10/22/2012
10:30 p.m.
11/21/2012
4 p.m.
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