Voter fraud is a very real thing. By real we mean that there have been 31 documented cases over the last seven election cycles, so it technically exists, but out of a billion votes cast, it’s affected exactly 0% of election outcomes.
But Donald Trump is a big orange baby, and he decided that if he was going to lose the election, he would go ahead and bring down the whole US electoral system with him. And that’s when he conjured up the age-old Republican bogeyman of voter fraud – and took it to new, terrifying extremes.
So Save the Day – an innovative digital production headed up by director Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and dedicated to fighting the “apathy, cynicism and honest confusion that keeps citizens from using their vote” – decided to tackle this confusion the best way they know how: making funny-ass videos. Following up on an ongoing series of digital shorts featuring A-list heavyweights like Jesse Williams, Keegan-Michael Key, and Bill Hader, their latest takes on Trump’s ominous portents of massive voter fraud in the style of a mock detective show called Fraud Squad, with our man Luis Guzmán as The Captain.
The two-minute clip kicks off with a high-energy credit sequence presenting the fictional Squad as a patriotic government agency on the front lines of the battle for democracy. Between shots of exploding cars, CSI-style forensics, and bald eagles, we’re led to believe that the Squad is out every day braving danger to protect our electoral system from would-be fraudsters.
Only, there’s not much actual fraud to prevent (with the exception of a couple of early Trump voters in Iowa, but I digress,) and instead we pick up on the team discussing ethnic dining options and halloween costumes in a quiet, dimly-lit office.
It’s a masterful exercise in comedic timing, and as usual Guzmán manages to squeeze all the funny out of just a few brief lines. But the real issues at hand aren’t so funny, and Save the Day closes out by reminding us that the real enemy this election is voter suppression, and that battle is fought and won at the voting both.
Check out Save the Day’s first Spanish-language PSA “Veredicto” on YouTube. The video follows the everyday lives of immigrants on election day and what would happen if Trump were to win.