2021 Online Video Storytelling – Docuseries

The 2020 election showcased the ultimate stress test for democracy, as election officials battled the coronavirus, disinformation, the threat of foreign and domestic interference, and the continued struggle to make voting accessible to all. Stressed Election is a four-part series that forecasted the biggest issues haunting the election, and brought viewers to the front lines of nationwide battles over how we vote. Episodes connected the issues of the 2020 election to relevant historical precedents set by Supreme Court cases, federal policies and state legislation. They amplified the voices of election officials, county clerks and volunteer poll workers to help our audiences make sense of an evolving and litigious landscape, and to discern myth from reality when it comes to genuine breaches of electoral integrity. We took our audience to ballot processing centers in Michigan and hours-long lines at polling stations in Georgia. We analyzed election-related misinformation on Facebook and looked at the improved security of voting machines. Each episode took the impact of the pandemic into account. As one of our expert journalists told us: “Never before in our lifetimes has the way we vote changed so much in a single year.” The series used creative storytelling to bring much-needed clarity to complex and democratic processes. For each state visited, we filmed local traditions and landmarks to make visual metaphors that illuminated our fragmented system. Our narrator maintained a lively tone that complimented the brisk pace of editing as we traveled through pop quizzes, animated history lessons and “ballot ballets.” An elegant type treatment combined with stylized cinematography showed this wasn’t your grandfather’s civics lesson. The result was a series that’s as accessible as it was prescient. Through its expansive yet detailed coverage of all the pressure points of the year, Stressed Election smartly documented how democracy under threat could bend without breaking.