Who Designs Democracy? | Screening & Keynote with Maximina Juson

“Maximina Juson is a crucial voice and visionary filmmaker who is asking the questions we must address amid today’s polarized climate. Her dynamism, her intelligence and her gifts for communication are not simply individual virtues, they’re assets in an ongoing effort to retain and strengthen democracy.”
— Jelani Cobb
Dean, Columbia Journalism School

The Architecture of Presidential Elections and the Mechanics of Reform.

In this screening and keynote engagement, award-winning filmmaker Maximina Juson uses her nationally broadcast PBS/Independent Lens documentary, One Person, One Vote?, as a starting point to examine how the design of presidential elections influences campaign strategy, political behavior, and civic life.

Democracy is often debated in ideological terms. Yet the Electoral College reminds us that the structure of a system can matter more than the rhetoric surrounding it. The rules of a system shape the incentives of everyone operating within it, from candidates and parties to voters themselves.

Film Screening

“Every American should see this movie.”

Michael Kosta, Host, The Daily Show

One Person, One Vote? is an entertaining, illuminating, and nonpartisan film unveiling the complexities of the Electoral College–the uniquely American and often misunderstood constitutional mechanism for electing a president.

Most Americans are confused by the Electoral College and have never met a presidential elector. The film follows four from Colorado – a Republican, a Democrat, a Green Party elector, and a bona fide elector for Kanye West.

One Person, One Vote? puts a human face on the Electoral College, exploring its constitutional origins, how it operates in practice, and contemporary reform efforts such as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The film is nonpartisan and interwoven with historical vignettes featuring leading scholars who examine the Electoral College’s roots in the political compromises of the founding era—including the role of slavery—and its lasting impact on American politics and society.

Keynote Presentation

The Who Designs Democracy? keynote extends the conversation beyond the film, examining how the current electoral structure shapes presidential campaign strategy and influences our broader civic life.

It also explores the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact as a contemporary case study in democratic redesign: an agreement among participating states to award their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner once states totaling 270 electoral votes have joined the compact.

Together, the screening and keynote reframe civic discourse through the lens of institutional structure rather than partisan sentiment, asking:

How does electoral design shape political incentives?
What behaviors do institutional structures reward or discourage?
How does electoral complexity affect democratic legitimacy and public trust?
When does institutional redesign strengthen democracy and when does it destabilize it?

Through historical grounding and contemporary analysis, the talk demonstrates why structural literacy is essential in an age of institutional strain.

F.A.C.T.S.

Media Literacy for the Disinformation Age

In addition to keynote and screening engagements, Juson offers F.A.C.T.S. (Finding Accuracy & Clarity in Today’s Social Media), developed through Civics Is Sexy.

F.A.C.T.S. equips participants with practical tools to identify misinformation, recognize bias, and navigate social media with greater clarity.

A compelling gamified experience, F.A.C.T.S. examines how narrative economies, emotional amplification, and algorithmic incentives distort public understanding of democratic systems.

Through guided discussion, real-world examples, and participatory exercises, F.A.C.T.S. explores how attention has become currency and how outrage, fear, and identity are often leveraged to drive engagement. Rather than telling people what to think, the program focuses on how to think: asking better questions, slowing down reaction cycles, and strengthening critical judgment.

Participants explore:

• Emotional Capitalism — how attention is monetized, and outrage becomes currency
• Crowd Psychology — how group dynamics influence perception
• Disinformation Dynamics — how distortion spreads without overt falsehoods
• Narrative Framing — how language shapes institutional legitimacy

Rather than focusing on partisan content, F.A.C.T.S. equips audiences with analytical tools to evaluate how democratic conversations are constructed and manipulated.

This module can be delivered as:

• A post-screening activation
• A seminar add-on
• An executive roundtable briefing
• A standalone institutional session

“An important educational tool for classrooms. A great way to capture students’ attention and lead rich discussions.”
— Cat Fish
Managing Director
Civic Nation

Who This Engagement Is For

This screening and keynote engagement are particularly well-suited for:

• Universities and colleges seeking programming on democracy, constitutional design, media literacy, and civic engagement
• Law schools and public policy programs examining institutional design and democratic reform
• Journalism and media studies departments exploring the relationship between political systems, narrative framing, and public understanding
• Civic organizations and foundations focused on democratic participation and structural reform
• Conferences and leadership forums looking for a nonpartisan, systems-level exploration of how democratic institutions function and evolve

Each engagement is tailored to the audience and institutional context.

Engagement Formats

Available formats include:

• Film Screening + Keynote
• Graduate-Level Lecture + Faculty Dialogue
• Conference Plenary
• Executive Roundtable
• Keynote + F.A.C.T.S. Briefing

Each engagement is tailored to audience composition and institutional objectives.

Audience Outcomes

Screenings of One Person, One Vote? spark lively discussions as audiences begin connecting the Electoral College’s historical foundations to the political incentives shaping modern presidential campaigns.

Participants leave with:

• A deeper understanding of constitutional design and institutional incentives
• Insight into how structural complexity influences public trust
• Analytical frameworks for evaluating democratic reform proposals
• Tools to assess media narratives surrounding elections
• Greater structural clarity in navigating contemporary civic discourse

This work is nonpartisan and systems-focused.

“The audience was very, very appreciative of One Person, One Vote? It was so well made and so informative, and really helped all of us better understand the bizarre Electoral College voting system.”
— Claudia Bestor
Director of Public Programs, Hammer Museum

About Maximina Juson

Maximina Juson is an award-winning filmmaker, civic educator, and speaker whose work explores power, culture, and the machinery that shapes American life.

She is the director, writer, and producer of the acclaimed PBS documentary One Person, One Vote?, a deeply human examination of the Electoral College, its origins, and its continuing impact on American democracy. Five years in the making, the film follows presidential electors across the political spectrum through the historic 2020 election. Juson was on the ground filming at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, capturing the attack and its aftermath firsthand, an experience that has deeply informed her work examining democratic systems, civic participation, and the fragility of institutions.

A National Endowment for the Humanities-funded film, One Person, One Vote? premiered nationally as the season opener of PBS’s Independent Lens and has been used as a civic education resource in classrooms and institutions across the country.

Juson has brought her work and civic conversations to universities and institutions across the country, including NYU, UCLA Law, UC Davis, and George Washington University. At Columbia Journalism School, Dean Jelani Cobb co-hosted a screening and conversation with Juson on "One Person, One Vote?" The film has also been presented and used as a civic education resource by institutions including Stanford Law School, Marquette University Law School, and PBS LearningMedia. Her civic engagement work has included collaborations with the ACLU, NAACP, League of Women Voters, and others.

Through screenings, keynotes, and facilitated conversations, Juson makes complex political systems accessible without telling audiences what to think. Her approach combines storytelling, history, media literacy, and audience participation to invite people into civic life rather than lecture them from the sidelines.

She is the founder of Civics Is Sexy, an arts-driven civic literacy initiative built around a simple idea: dialogue, not demonization. Her signature keynote, Who Designs Democracy?, and interactive media literacy program, F.A.C.T.S. (Finding Accuracy and Clarity in Today’s Social Media), challenge audiences to examine how systems are built, how information shapes participation, and what it means to recognize their own civic power.

Born in the Philippines and raised in the United States, Juson’s perspective on American democracy is shaped by the experience of an immigrant who learned the country’s systems by questioning them. Her work is provocative, highly visual, and grounded in the belief that understanding how the machinery works is the first step toward deciding how we choose to engage with it.

Credentials

National Broadcast: PBS / Independent Lens
Funded By: National Endowment for the Humanities
Audience Reach: 2.7M+ viewers nationwide
Executive Director of Civics Is Sexy — an arts-driven civic literacy initiative

One Person, One Vote? features insights from leading historians, legal scholars, journalists, and political scientists, including Akhil Reed Amar, Carol Anderson, Jelani Cobb, Paul Finkelman, and Jesse Wegman.

Together, their perspectives illuminate the constitutional design of the Electoral College and the ways its structure continues to shape American presidential elections.