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One Vote

Come election season, it's easy to get cynical. Why cast a ballot if your single measly vote can't possibly change anything? In our first-ever election special, we set off to find a single vote that made a difference. We venture from the biggest election on the planet - where polling officials must brave a lion-inhabited forest to collect the vote of an ascetic temple priest - to the smallest election on the planet - where there are no polling officials, only kitty cats wearing nametags. Along the way, we meet a too-trusting advice columnist, a Texan Emperor, and a passive-aggressive mom who helped change American democracy forever.  Reported by Latif Nasser with help from Tracie Hunte. Produced by Simon Adler, Tracie Hunte, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen and Latif Nasser.  Special thanks to The Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps and their director Jim Predhomme. Special thanks also to Professors Timothy Harris, Krista Kesselring, Charles Somerwine, Jim Lehring, Isabel DiVanna, Sara Bronin, Wanda Sobieski, Paula F. Casey, Andrea Mansker, and Jenny Diamond Cheng. Thanks to the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. And thanks as well to Cindy Horswell, Robin Melvin, Ken Herman, Laura Harrington and Mel Marvin.  Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.   
Duration
50m
Broadcast on
07 Nov 2016
Audio Format
other

Come election season, it's easy to get cynical. Why cast a ballot if your single measly vote can't possibly change anything?

In our first-ever election special, we set off to find a single vote that made a difference. We venture from the biggest election on the planet - where polling officials must brave a lion-inhabited forest to collect the vote of an ascetic temple priest - to the smallest election on the planet - where there are no polling officials, only kitty cats wearing nametags. Along the way, we meet a too-trusting advice columnist, a Texan Emperor, and a passive-aggressive mom who helped change American democracy forever. 

Reported by Latif Nasser with help from Tracie Hunte. Produced by Simon Adler, Tracie Hunte, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen and Latif Nasser. 

Special thanks to The Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps and their director Jim Predhomme. Special thanks also to Professors Timothy Harris, Krista Kesselring, Charles Somerwine, Jim Lehring, Isabel DiVanna, Sara Bronin, Wanda Sobieski, Paula F. Casey, Andrea Mansker, and Jenny Diamond Cheng. Thanks to the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. And thanks as well to Cindy Horswell, Robin Melvin, Ken Herman, Laura Harrington and Mel Marvin. 

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.   


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Oh wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC. Okay, so how are we going to start this? Well, I think we should start. Wait, wait, wait. First of all, I'm Robert Krillwich, this is Radio Lab, and today we're going to start with our producer, let's get faster. Now, now you. Okay, let me take you to the biggest democracy on the planet. Yes, it is. You know, in fact, we have more voters than every continent in India. Over 800 million voters, we have 90 countries rolled into one, and from 2010 to 2012, this guy, S.Y. Kureshi? Yes, S.Y. Kureshi was in charge of the whole thing. I was the chief election cometer of India from 2010 to 2012, and before that, election cometer for four years. And Kureshi told me something that just astonished me. They have this crazy rule. Our principal aid that we would like a polling station to be within walking distance maximum 2 kilometers. So not a single of the 800 million plus voters has to travel more than a mile in a bit to get to a polling station, so no matter where you are in that giant country that is India. This is true? Yes. We have polling station in the deep forest and on the mountains, where it will take three days to walk. There is no other way you can reach there. So here, while we use helicopters, we also send our polling party on camels, on elephant, on wheels, on bicycle, on motorcycle, on boats, whatever it takes. Which brings us to the gear forest. We have a polling station in the gear forest of Gujarat, only for one boat. So in Gujarat, there is a forest. And there is a temple priest who lives inside a temple deep, deep in this forest. By himself. Yeah. And so, what Kureshi would do is every election, he'd send team into that forest, which by the way, is the home to the Asiatic Lion. And there are regular reports of lions actually attacking people. And basically, these guys trek 12 and a half miles into the forest, dragging along with them this voting machine, until they get to this, like, it's like a little forest outpost. They get there, they sleep overnight, and then early the next morning, set up the polling station, and then they wait, they just wait for this guy. They wait for him to come and vote. And there is actually a video on YouTube of this guy emerging from the forest. To vote, his name is Mahant Bharat Das Darshandar. He's wearing traditional clothes, you know, this long, sarongi-type skirt. So he walks into this little station, fills out his ballot, gets his finger painted with a little red dot, right? That's to make sure he doesn't vote twice, which would be a little hard to pull off in

Transcription truncated.

Come election season, it's easy to get cynical. Why cast a ballot if your single measly vote can't possibly change anything? In our first-ever election special, we set off to find a single vote that made a difference. We venture from the biggest election on the planet - where polling officials must brave a lion-inhabited forest to collect the vote of an ascetic temple priest - to the smallest election on the planet - where there are no polling officials, only kitty cats wearing nametags. Along the way, we meet a too-trusting advice columnist, a Texan Emperor, and a passive-aggressive mom who helped change American democracy forever.  Reported by Latif Nasser with help from Tracie Hunte. Produced by Simon Adler, Tracie Hunte, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen and Latif Nasser.  Special thanks to The Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps and their director Jim Predhomme. Special thanks also to Professors Timothy Harris, Krista Kesselring, Charles Somerwine, Jim Lehring, Isabel DiVanna, Sara Bronin, Wanda Sobieski, Paula F. Casey, Andrea Mansker, and Jenny Diamond Cheng. Thanks to the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. And thanks as well to Cindy Horswell, Robin Melvin, Ken Herman, Laura Harrington and Mel Marvin.  Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.