As an American—first and foremost—what is revealed in the documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy has us experiencing simultaneous bouts of anger and hope. Voting and the right to vote should not be a partisan issue. Sadly, it has become exactly that, what with laser-focused redistricting to voter suppression. It is an insult to all who marched, rallied, bled, and died for the most common of all democracy traits—a free and open election.
Featured front and center, and rightfully so given her experience with all of the above, is Georgian Stacey Abrams. She lost a bitterly battled gubernatorial election to Brian Kemp, whose role as that state’s Attorney General found him making it incredibly difficult for certain demographics to cast their votes in a timely manner. This is the film’s starting line and what a way to hook an audience. What All In does so well is it may commence in 2018 with the Georgia governor’s race, but the film—from directors Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus—provides the most approachable and epic history lesson on this subject.
Rarely has a documentary been so timely. With a matter of weeks before the presidential election, viewing this film ought to motivate anyone who witnesses its majesty to vote—but also to do everything you can to ensure that everyone you know does the same, as well as countless souls who we have never met. As the headlines speak of a POTUS who is championing the idea that there will be mass voter fraud with mail-in ballots, it is easy to see that this is merely one more ploy on the right to limit the access to voting. Who could possibly have a problem with mail-in voting while the country is in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century? We are almost near 200,000 dead in America. Now, people have literally died for the right to vote. But it seems too much to ask its citizens in 2020 to head out into the cold and place your vote alongside countless individuals who may or may not have been responsible when it comes to social distancing and wearing masks.
It is downright cruel to think that there are people who think like that. Sadly, they do, and they have been doing everything in their power to limit access to voting in the last several decades. POTUS even said that if mail-in voting was allowed across the country, a “Republican would never win another election.” They know that limiting voting is the key to victory. For anyone who proudly lists an “R” next to their party affiliation, how can they support this party who is doing everything they can to suppress voting?
The doc chronicles how many voting sites have been closed, mostly in low-income or minority neighborhoods. As shown in the 2018 midterms, people were willing to wait in the longest of lines to cast their G-d given right as part of the democratic process. Some interviewed in All In report being on their sixth hour of waiting to do their civic duty. That’s infuriating and was merely for a midterm election. For a presidential election, those wait times could exponentially increase. The party in power (of the White House) clearly has no problem with that fact. There is no way to sugarcoat this: My film reviews are never partisan. But this documentary (and history) makes it crystal clear that it is the Republicans who are doing the dirty work in hopes of swaying the election.
It is not criminal enough that intelligence has shown that the Russians are once again meddling in our presidential election, and those in charge have done nothing about it? President Obama instituted economic sanctions against the former Soviet Union and soon after Trump was sworn in, he removed them. Congress authorized $100 million to fight foreign intrusion in our election process and thus far, the executive branch has yet to use a single penny. This spoke in the election wheel is not a large factor in All In: The Fight for Democracy. But… every single person who views the documentary possesses that base knowledge, making what is occurring in voter suppression all the more vital to counteract that attack on democracy.
There are many profoundly rich contributors strewed wisely throughout the film. But the star is clearly the woman who should have been the Governor of Georgia. Abrams is a phenomenal voice for reason, information, and perspective. Relaying her personal story only enhances the message of the overall film. The former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives speaks of her parents and how they made voting a family gathering, instantly instilling that virtue into every single one of their four children. The need for systematic societal change arrives frequently in the film, but none more personal and powerful than when Abrams recalls being invited to the governor’s mansion after earning the title of her high school class valedictorian. Upon arriving at the security gate, without even looking at the guest list, the guard informed her and her family that they don’t belong there, and they are not welcomed. Needless to say, he had no idea who he was talking to… her folks gave a well-reasoned argument on behalf of their daughter, as well as a few choice R-rated words from her father! They went in.
With this as your baseline, the need for every single disenfranchised person to vote could not be clearer. Add in the priceless background provided in the film about these issues (particularly in the south), and one is armed with the most powerful weapon of all in our democracy—knowledge. Evidence is clear. When black men were given the right to vote, black men were elected to positions never before held by people of color. Then, Jim Crow became weaponized and all that advancement disappeared. Whether it poll taxes or constitutional quizzes that were designed to have people fail, the percentages of POC who were able to vote took a nosedive.
What is absolutely insane is that it is 2020, a period in our collective history where we have never been so beautifully diverse as a nation. Yet there are enormous swaths of our electorate who will have to jump through countless hoops just to cast their vote. As painted in All In: The Fight for Democracy, hundreds of thousands of people have been purged from the voter rolls. Whether through so-called “use it or lose it” policies that remove folks who haven’t voted in two or three election cycles, or people who were cut from the rolls when they didn’t return what looked like junk mail postcards. Those were, in fact, requests for voter confirmation. When officials didn’t receive those confirmation cards, they were purged.
After experiencing the power of Cortes and Garbus’ film, one is overcome by a feeling of dread for the upcoming election day. How many tens or hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions?—of people will show up at their local polling place and discover that they aren’t registered voters… through no fault of their own. That is if that polling place even still exists!
This writer never agrees with Trump on anything, but he was right when he stated in no uncertain terms that if everyone who wishes to vote is able to vote, no Republican will ever win another election. They know that and act accordingly. That was painstakingly laid out in All In: The Fight for Democracy. In the stellar documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble, the legendary Georgia congressman stated that this issue was an enormous one and that it is a stain on our democracy and our history. He would know about such things. It was his head that was bashed in on that bridge in Selma, Alabama during the march for voting rights in the early 60s. National news cameras captured the mayhem on that fateful day decades ago, spurring the issue to the forefront of our collective attention. It is my hope that this documentary will serve as a similar catalyst and that millions of people will head into election day with that supreme weapon of knowledge and be prepared for whatever curveballs are thrown their way as they seek to vote for the next leader of the free world.
That’s just it. You have weeks now to plan and have contingency plans for what you will do should your name be purged from the voting rolls. Have phone numbers of state and local offices at the ready. Know your rights when it comes to voting and what is legal and most importantly, being aware of what is illegal. Poll taxes are illegal. Constitutional quizzes are illegal. Republicans will try everything they can to limit the voter turnout on November 3.
It is the only way they can win. It is the last vestige of a certain block of the population, who clings to their perceived power and slice of the pie that is dwindling as each year passes and more and more diversity enhances our republic.
The filmmakers say it best in their director’s statement. They hope to “arm citizens with the tools they need to protect this right” to vote.
Watch the film. Know your rights. Vote.
For more information, visit All In For Voting.
Grade: A