STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote (Feature Film)

The film, STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote, sheds light on more than a decade of vote tallies that don't match votes cast – voter disenfranchisement, vote switching, uncounted ballots, and other examples of irregular election totals that warrant serious investigation.

This companion website offers resources for anyone interested in election integrity. Watch our shorts, clips and feature film to learn why we need open and observable elections. Learn more, get involved, and take action.

SYNOPSIS

STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives with a focus on irregularities in the U.S. presidential election of 2004 (plus key races from 1996 on). Stories that warrant serious investigation range from vote counts that don't match votes cast to purging of minority voters. We hear from voters about a wide range of problems, including votes flipping from one candidate to another, and not enough machines. Investigative journalists describe how their reportage on election fraud was ignored. First-person testimonies speak of waiting in line nine hours to vote. We hear from polling experts that their requests for data were rejected. Ballots were systematically destroyed, making audits impossible. The message is for voters to be aware and take responsibility to report irregularities.

CREDITS

Dorothy Fadiman

Producer/Director

Dorothy lives in Menlo Park, CA, with her husband James Fadiman. They have two daughters, Renee and Maria. Dorothy pursued graduate work in communication studies at Stanford University. In 1974, while she writing a book about the light of Spirit, she was approached by a filmmaker, Michael Wiese, who suggested they work together. That collaboration became RADIANCE, her first production. Since then she has produced more than 30 films. Her book PRODUCING with PASSION: Making Films that Change the World follows her career and offers specific suggestions for independent filmmakers to use in their work as they find their unique voices.

Owen Tomlins

Editor/Filmmaker

Owen grew up in upstate New York, the son of a Teacher and Poet, and a Fashion Designer. His love of film developed early, and by age 15, he was showing his films at film festivals. Owen studied story structure and mythology in depth, and wrote and produced several short films. In 2000, he began teaching filmmaking to high school students at the Randolph School and Children’s Media Project, where he taught for the next 12 years. He directed his first documentary FORMS IN TIME, about the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. Owen met Dorothy on location at Vassar College in NY while filming A DARING JOURNEY: From Immigration to Education. He has since moved to California to continue his work with Concentric Media.

THE MAKING OF

Dorothy joined a group of volunteers who flew to South Florida to observe voting during the 2004 Presidential Election. As voters came out of the booths, they reported their votes for Kerry were flipping on the screen to George Bush. Other volunteers working at different sites reported that same thing, votes "flipping" in one direction, from Kerry to Bush. Dorothy began to investigate and found that votes for President were being switched, mainly in one direction from Kerry to Bush, in at least 13 states. She decided to make a film about this unreported election anomaly. Through background research, she discovered dozens of other serious problems across the country during that election. While making the film STEALING AMERICA, she learned about additional irregularities in New Mexico during the 2004 Presidential election. She then produced a second election film, RECLAIMING Their VOICE: The Native American Vote in New Mexico & Beyond which looks at the American Indian suffrage movement historically through the present.

REVIEWS

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"...this tersely sobering documentary mounts its case with hardheaded numerical logic."
EntertainmentWeekly.pdf Download

POLITICO.COM
"...no recent film comes closer to showing the horrifying potential glitches in the electoral process. A must-see for anyone interested in the future of democracy and the ugly truth behind voting irregularities."
Politico.com.pdf - Download

NEWSDAY.COM
"Critically important movie that puts a stake through the heart of any advocate of electronic voting"
NewsDay.pdf - Download

SCOOP INDEPENDENT NEWS
"The thought that someone—anyone--in the United States of America might tamper with something as fundamental to democracy as the counting of votes simply wasn’t in my universe of thought...After watching Stealing America: Vote by Vote, I’ve changed my mind."
Download Scoop.pdf

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"...persuasive documentary...makes the point that rigged elections are antithetical to everything this country stands for."
Download PhiladelphiaInquirer.pdf

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"....'Stealing' will send you out of the theater terrified for the future of democracy in America."
Download HollywoodReporter.pdf

FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"Stealing America: Vote by Vote does for American democracy what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming."
Download FilmJournalInternational.pdf

EVERETT HERALD
"Filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman has compiled a withering case against allowing computerized voting systems -- easy to manipulate and hard to police -- to take over our election process. In most places, of course, they already have."