HBO's 'Recount' Revisits the Hanging Chad
Political junkies are a-quiver in anticipation of "Recount," HBO's drama about the Florida ballot battle in the contested 2000 presidential election. Video blogger Jacob Soboroff talks with Ari Shapiro about tonight's debut.
ARI SHAPIRO, host:
Political junkies are aquiver in anticipation of tonight's HBO debut of "Recount." It's the story of the hotly contested 2000 presidential election. WEEKEND EDITION Sunday's video blogger Jacob Soboroff brought his camera to our offices earlier this week, and he taped me interviewing him.
I'm here with Jacob Soboroff, and last week he was in L.A. and saw a showing of "Recount." And as part of the event, they actually had butterfly ballots and some of the machines that were used in Palm Beach, Florida. And I guess you asked people to use them and see whether they found it easy or not.
JACOB SOBOROFF: That's right. They actually set up the voteamatic butterfly ballot, famous hanging chad system that became so infamous after the Florida recount, after and during. And I went there to see if people today could effectively use the same ballot that they used back then in 2003 that's so much trouble.
SHAPIRO: Those machines in that controversy Bush v. Gore were seven years ago. So, what about this is relevant today?
SOBOROFF: Well, I think that "Recount," a large part of this movie and promotion of this movie is about a re-examination today, eight years down the line, of the state of the voting system in the United States. And it's a lot...
SHAPIRO: What is the state of the voting system in the United States?
SOBOROFF: Well, a lot of people say - I mean, I talked to 13 of the 16 presidential candidates about the state of the voting system. The vast majority of them, if not all of them, say that it's something that is definitely worth talking about. And I would say 75 percent of the 13 that I talked to said that it's broken, it's explicitly broken.
SHAPIRO: Your video also suggests that there are problems with confidence in the way votes are counted and tallied.
SOBOROFF: I mean, the integrity of our voting system is a big concern. People don't know that their votes are going to count, number one, that their votes will be counted. And so, you know, you see a lot of people stay home.
SHAPIRO: Why do you care?
SOBOROFF: I mean, look, voting is a right - Thomas Paine said voting is the right by which all other rights are protected. If you can't vote to have someone represent you in the government, you can't speak out on any issue that you care about, whether it's the environment, genocide, gay rights, gun rights, education, whatever it is.
I mean, probably everything that's talked about on WEEKEND EDITION Sunday in some form comes back to if you don't vote, if you can't vote on these issues, how are the American people's voices being heard on these issues? And so that's really, for me, what it comes down to.
SHAPIRO: Jacob Soboroff of Why Tuesday and Sunday Soapbox, good talking with you.
SOBOROFF: Thanks, man.
SHAPIRO: You can see my interview with Jacob Soboroff and his video about the butterfly ballot machines at our political blog, NPR.org/SundaySoapbox.
(Soundbite of music)
SHAPIRO: This is NPR News.
Copyright © 2008 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.