Oscar Voting Procedures and Controversy Over How the Ballots Are Completed

An otherwise routine interview on "Late Show with David Letterman" in 2006 with Samuel L. Jackson suddenly went into left field and could have perked up an investigation into Oscar voting. While he said he was joking later, Jackson said during that Letterman interview that he didn't even take time to watch the movies nominated for Academy Awards and let his wife and nanny (who were more apt to watch all the nominated movies) fill out the ballots instead. He seemed halfway serious when saying this. Later, when Fox News went after the story and criticized him for it (including a reprimand from AMPAS), Jackson recoiled and said he assumed people would take what he said as straight-faced satire. He said he didn't even have a nanny working for him.

Well, ok, we'll assume that he's always done his duty as an Academy member and fills out the ballot each year...while actually watching the films beforehand. As he rebutted (and butted heads with) Fox News--he made it clear that he truly does take the time to fill those ballots out himself. But what about other notables in the industry who get the DVD's of the nominated films and ballots in the mail as if participating in a political vote-by-mail process? Are they really taking the time to watch all the nominated films--or do they put an "X" next to the movie or actress they just have a halfway understanding of without having spent any real time studying or watching? After all, a lot of members of AMPAS are busy people and probably can't sit and watch dozens of films that they may find tedious.

Yes, it may be that members of the AMPAS are just as fickle as the average member of the public when it comes to which movies they'll watch and which ones they won't. That's unfortunately based on a process of finding a movie boring via its title or after seeing a few minutes of it in a preview. If that's the case, then maybe Oscar voting should revert to how most to all voting in the world should be done: By every single American person mature enough to make an educated decision.

The voting procedure...