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"Any one of us can take a step and make a difference, " David Earnhardt said as he stood before 60 MTSU students Tuesday night.
Earnhardt is director, writer and producer of the documentary "Uncounted," which addresses issues such as electoral fraud, electronic voting and inaccessible polls during the 2004 election.
The film portrayed America's troubles with voting, arguing these should be corrected before the 2008 elections to insure all votes count.
Earnhardt interviewed countless people from all over the country, indicating flaws in our voting system that threaten our democracy.
It told of voters who waited up to nine hours to vote in some places only to leave discouraged, their ballots never cast. Others hoping to vote during breaks from work had to return to their jobs. Still more were forced to leave before voting to pick up their children from school.
One man said it seemed like a crime to make American citizens stand in conditions like that to vote. Many of the voting precincts didn't have enough machines and were disorganized, several people said.
"The information in the documentary can be dark and overwhelming, but I want people to see the power of one," said Earnhardt. Some of those interviewed lost their jobs, and in one case, received criminal charges for protesting electronic vote tampering.
If we want to make a difference we have to stand up for the difference we want to make, Earnhardt said.
Steve Heller, a whistleblower at Diebold, one of the corporations that develops voting technology, said that something is happening in the most powerful country in the world that requires drastic change to preserve our democracy. Heller lost his job at Diebold for turning in documents proving Diebold's voting machines weren't legal; criminal charges followed.
"Sometimes what's illegal isn't always wrong," said Heller.
Bruce Funk, former county clerk of Emery County, Utah, was forced to resign for questioning the security of his county's voting.
"I lost a lot of good friends in the debacle, but I needed to do what was right; that seemed like all that mattered," Funk said.
"If not for these brave citizens who stood up for what was right, we as Americans might not have ever known what was going on with our voting system. I just hope we haven't scared off whistleblowers for good," said Earnhardt.
The movie indicated 3 million votes went uncounted in 2004, along with the close to 2 million votes that were on provisional ballots.
"I thought it was ironic that America was trying to set up democracy in other countries when ours is crumbling," said Earnhardt.
"Uncounted" also showed the hazard of electronic voting. Many of the electronic voting booths now have some kind of paper trail that allows auditing, but in 2004 they did not. It told how easily the machines could be manipulated to double or flip votes for a certain political party.
"Any computer programmer can do it - It's not like you have to be a genius," said Clint Curtis, a former employee of Yang Enterprises, who in 2000 asked Curtis to assist in a scheme to steal votes by putting a virus on electronic voting machines.
"You can't tell that the companies are manipulating these machines and so we've basically turned over our elections to the companies," said Earnhardt.
Tennessee is still using voting machines that do not produce a paper ballot. Earnhardt's documentary warns people of the risks they are taking by not leaving a paper trail.
"We'd love for you to come and observe our voting machines. We're always looking for help during voting time. We use Micro-Vote, a brand that we've not had problems with, and we believe that is good or we wouldn't use them," said Hooper Penuel, the administrator of the Rutherford County election commission.
"One citizen, one vote - the fundamentals of democracy," said Earnhardt. He said he wanted his film to show Americans how crucial this time in our history is.
"I know there's a problem, but it's up to us to band together and let our voice be heard," he said.
"You have got to have trust in the system, voting in America is mostly trustworthy," said Penuel.
"It's just like locking your door when you leave the house. It's not because you're paranoid; it's just a precaution. We need to do the same thing with voting. If nothing's wrong then there's no problem in just checking over it, but if something is wrong we need to know," said Earnhardt.
"If our vote doesn't count then none of the issues of the presidential candidate we are supporting really matter either. The most important thing about voting is that you vote for the issues that matter, but without a vote you can't have a say in what happens," said Earnhardt.
"This is my dream; we are trying to get this [film] to as many people as possible. We are working on getting it on television and we'd love to see it released into theaters, but first we need people to share this film. We need to get this issue on the table. I'm trying to take this movie straight to the people."
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