This Thursday, the Austin Film Festival gives you a free (or cheapish) screening of the new doc "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections." You probably guessed already that the "new math" referred to here is not some fancy-pants non-Euclidean geometry, but rather the way that election returns have gotten easier and easier for unscrupulous parties to screw around with.

The movie looks at the 2004 and 2006 elections, and interviews people who have been privy to some of the shadier dealings that go on behind the scenes of the election machine (for example, a programmer who is ordered to create software that might be able to flip votes from one category to another). Sounds like required viewing before the coming election - desperation breeds dirty tactics.