Go Watch "Recount" on HBO

by: Hannah Farber

Wed May 28, 2008 at 19:08:22 PM EDT

I've spent the last two days trying to figure out the, ummmm, policy angles that would allow me to write about the HBO movie Recount, which I watched last weekend and which was vivid enough to make me have to go take an angry nap as soon as it was over.

For me, the points that emerge most vividly from reliving the 2000 election are these:

Our attention spans are short. Eight years after the election, all that talk about how the prolonging of the dispute would have irreparably damaged our democratic process seems very odd. What would another month have mattered, in comparison with the huge decisions that were made shortly thereafter by the president who was chosen? Today, who even remembers? Yet I remember this being a very serious point of discussion for people in both camps.

Our attention spans are really short. During that election, voting processes were seriously flawed in a number of places, and there was most certainly a pattern regarding where those voting processes were the most flawed. This had political consequences. But who took up the super important charge to make sure that things were going to be different by the next election? Or by the one after that? No way, there are a lot of political things to talk about that are much more fun.  Machines? Boring... but so crucial! Raise your hand if you helped fix the systematic injustices of voting machines in your district... Nope, me neither.

The margin of victory between the two candidates was insane - it was impossible. But it happened, and many states besides Florida have had absurdly close races since then. (Seriously, is everybody secretly just flipping a coin in the voting booth?)  If you live in any of a number of states, it could happen near you. And boy, wouldn't you be sorry if it happened this year and you hadn't voted. After HBO warned you and everything! 

It's still worth noting that no evidence of systematic voter fraud ever emerged, and that no physical violence ever took place (though plenty of death threats did get thrown around). And we shouldn't take that for granted. That was really, really good.