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Mention an "electronic voting scandal" on this side of the pond and people will probably think of shoddy television phone-ins. In the US however, where 87 per cent of election votes are cast electronically, the ramifications are much greater than someone fixing who gets to go on Richard & Judy's "You Say, We Pay". The accuracy of touch screen gizmos in polling booths might seem a pretty dry subject for a documentary. Hacking Democracy, however, turns out to be an engaging expos茅 of organisations hiding negligence - and even fraud - behind faceless computers, assuming the public can't question the underlying technology.

That public is represented here by Bev Harris, a seemingly unremarkable middle-aged woman who campaigns against Diebold Corporation, the leading provider of voting systems. You can't help but admire Bev's simple methods: she asks questions and, when she suspects she's being lied to, goes through the bins behind election centres. Her activism contributes to some remarkable findings, including a machine in Florida that declared minus 16,022 votes for Al Gore in 2000. Is this just shoddiness, or is there something more malevolent at work? While treading carefully, the documentary points out that Diebold are in the pay of a Republican Party committee.

"AN ENGAGING EXPOS脡"

Unfortunately, Hacking Democracy's production values aren't up to those of recent cinema-released documentaries, letting down its compelling argument. There's no Michael Moore but a hammy voiceover, and where last year's Enron doc found human foibles behind the corporate monolith, this only gets as far as lines of code on a computer monitor, endlessly scrolling past. Though not entirely suited for big screen viewing, Hacking Democracy will hopefully find a much more appropriate home on 91热爆 Four or More4.

Hacking Democracy is released on Friday 20th April 2007.