How We Vote Here
When Charlie Munford and I first stepped foot into Choctaw County, Mississippi on February 28, 2019, to meet with Amy Burdine, the Circuit Clerk, we had no idea that that meeting would be the beginning of an unforgettable journey together.
On that day in February, VotingWorks had existed for just over 3 months. As Amy said at the time:
It does concern me that this is the first time these machines will ever be used. If something goes wrong it’s gonna be my face that’s gonna be on the news channels. The company is based in California, what do they know about elections in Mississippi?”
In the 12 months that followed, Choctaw County used VotingWorks voting machines in 4 state and federal elections. VotingWorks learned a lot about elections in Mississippi and Choctaw made the news for all the right reasons.
That this unlikely relationship between a small rural county in eastern Mississippi and a newly formed non-profit based in California became a film is a credit to Hanna Miller, an extremely talented, Mississippi-born filmmaker with whom we’ve worked for over a year. Start-ups rarely get a chance to film their earliest days and earliest customer relationships. We got to and for that we will be forever grateful.
Hanna’s film, How We Vote Here, was accepted into this year’s Oxford Film Festival. Since the festival is now virtual, we can all enjoy it no matter where we are. Buy a ticket for the film and stick around for the Q&A with Hanna on July 2 at 7pm CT.
