ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
As the CIA confirms that the Russian government hacked the American Presidential election, the team that produced Hacking Democracy (HBO) in 2006 joins forces with elite computer security experts to ask if the machines that count America's votes, were infiltrated? And if so, by whom?

SYNOPSIS
In 2006, HBO aired Hacking Democracy, a documentary that showed how easy it was to hack the voting machines that counted around 80% of America’s votes. The film was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and its findings were confirmed in several studies by top computer scientists, including one by the University of California, Berkeley. This November almost 100% of America’s votes were counted by machines.

The culminating scene featured Harri Hursti, a Finnish computer expert and hacker, showing how to manipulate the votes using only a single Memory Card from outside the room that housed the voting machines. This scene changed the national conversation about voting security and led several states to conduct intensive investigations based on “the Hursti Hack”. Despite this, ten years later none of the critical security flaws have been fixed.

Now Hacking Democracy Executive Producer, Sarah Teale, and producer/directors Simon Ardizzone and Russ Michaels have come together again to ask why, when it is clear that our voting machines are vulnerable to outside manipulation, including attacks from other nation states, has nothing been done to secure America’s vote counting computers and what can be done in the future? Could the voting machines for the 2016 Presidential election have been hacked by the Russians or anyone else, and if so how?

As computer security experts and hackers, most of whom appeared in Hacking Democracy including Harri Hursti, come together to investigate the elections and the voting machines we have been granted access to follow the process as they demand access to voting machines that are privately owned by outside corporations who have no interest in allowing anyone to look inside the workings of their black boxes.

Are the allegations that Russia hacked the election credible and did the voter registration database hacks that actually happened delete voters’ details, preventing them from voting? Were the voting machines and scanners on line and therefore vulnerable for intervention?

We intend to follow these experts as they try to find out what happened to America’s vote. How can we ensure both security and transparency in the future?

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels
PRODUCER Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Sarah Teale

WEBSITE hackingdemocracy.com