Who Designs Democracy? | Screening & Keynote with Maximina Juson

From Maximina:

The response to One Person, One Vote? from audiences across the country and across generations has been incredible. Yet there’s still a lot of work to do to help more Americans understand how our presidents are actually elected.

Many of you have reached out asking about screenings and talks connected to One Person, One Vote?. I’ve created this page for institutions interested in hosting a screening and keynote conversation about the design of presidential elections and democratic reform.

If you’re connected to a university, conference, or civic organization that might be interested, please feel free to share.

These are conversations Americans need now more than ever.

Yours truly,
Maximina

Award-Winning Filmmaker. Civic Educator. Executive Director, Civics Is Sexy
PBS / Independent Lens | National Endowment for the Humanities | Emmy Awards Judge
Decoding the Architecture of Democracy

Who Designs Democracy?

The Architecture of Presidential Elections and the Mechanics of Reform.

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. Why? Because the rules of a system shape the incentives of everyone operating within it, from candidates and parties to voters themselves.

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 for examining how the design of presidential elections influences campaign strategy, political behavior, and civic life.

Film Screening

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 state – 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

Who This Engagement Is For

This screening and keynote engagement is 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.

About Maximina Juson

Maximina Juson is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, and the founder of Humans Understanding Machinery (HUM), a creative studio dedicated to interrogating the machinery of our times while illuminating stories of the misunderstood, overlooked, or erased.

A National Endowment for the Humanities grantee, Juson directed the PBS Independent Lens documentary One Person, One Vote?, which reached millions of viewers nationwide and resonated across both pop culture and academia.

Juson is also a civic educator and founder of Civics Is Sexy, a culture-driven initiative that uses art, storytelling, film, and media literacy to make civic participation accessible and actionable, particularly for young adults.

Juson brings rhythm, musicality, and deep cultural fluency to her work, creating projects that are emotionally resonant and accessible without sacrificing complexity.

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:

Akhil Reed Amar — Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University, Author of America’s Constitution and The Words That Made Us
Carol Anderson — Roger W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies, Emory University, and author of White Rage
Richard Brookhiser — Historian and Senior Editor, National Review
Jelani Cobb — Dean, Columbia Journalism School; Staff Writer, The New Yorker
Wilfred Codrington III — Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law and codirector of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, and Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice
George C. Edwards III — Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies, Texas A&M University, Author of Government in America
Paul Finkelman — Visiting Professor; University of Toledo Law School, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, author of A March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the United States and Slavery and the Founders
Jesse Wegman — Editorial Board Member, The New York Times; author of Let the People Pick the President

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