“Rigged” speaks to the weakening of democracy in America via voter suppression. The film makes the case that beginning with the election of our first black President, conservative political forces have turned with renewed vigor to ways of winnowing the electorate of people of color, the economically stressed, and the young. The suppression playbook is replete with technique: polling-place ID requirements, voter integrity commissions, wide-scale voter roll purges, difficult voter registration requirements, reduced number of polling places, long wait times in voter queues, deleted guarantees of the Voting Rights Act overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013, and potentially suppression-favorable lower courts that have been, since the 1970’s, seeded with a preponderance of conservative jurists. To add insult to injury, the political effectiveness of those that can and do vote is reduced by gerrymandering. The film will inform and alarm you about the multiple, interconnected, and unscrupulous schemes increasingly being used to shape voting outcomes and ultimately our democracy.

“The Battle for Ranked Choice Voting” – Facing increasingly divisive politics, citizens across America are coming together to change the way we vote. Maine leads the way, fighting entrenched interests to enact a reform that reduces negative campaigning, eliminates the “spoiler effect,” and opens races to minority & third-party candidates.

“Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook” (Michael Kasino, 78 min.)
“The Battle for Ranked Choice Voting” (Julie Mallozzi, 16 min.)