Black-ish: Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross star in special one-hour election special on ABC

Andre Johnson Jr. had an eye-opening experience as he struggled to vote on Sunday’s one-hour Black-ish election special on ABC.

Junior (Marcus Scribner) began the show excited by the prospect of voting in his first presidential election, only to learn that he was not registered to vote.

Over the next half-hour, he would come to better understand what it took to get his voice heard in America, where the election process wasn’t always fair or straightforward.

‘I’ve been purged from the voter rolls,’ Junior complained to his grandfather Earl ‘Pops’ Johnson (Laurence Fishburne). ‘It’s like I don’t even exist.’

‘That’s the dream, son,’ Pops replied. ‘You no longer on the government’s radar! You don’t have to worry about being drafted, paying taxes, getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom! You in the clear.’

‘No, I want to vote,’ Junior insisted. ‘I’ve been so careful to protect myself. I don’t drive over the speed limit, I don’t open anyone else’s mail, I didn’t even drink underage in college.’

‘You were only in college for three days,’ his grandmother Ruby Johnson (Jenifer Lewis) pointed out.

Junior did a Google search and clicked on a video by Dr. Hosea Wilkins, ‘Bringer of Truth,’ hoping to understand why he wasn’t on the voter rolls.

‘The system is always coming up with new ways to keep you from voting,’ Hosea said. ‘Like making you get a photo ID just so you can vote. Or moving your polling place at the last minute. Or like when you’re standing in line to vote and they make you go through a separate portal made for Black people. Mm! You go in, you think you’re voting, but guess again: You’ve been sucked into a simulation and there is no escape. Boom! You’re in the Matrix!’

Unsatisfied, Junior clicked on a voting documentary that looked more reputable.

In it, Georgetown sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson revealed that 75 percent of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence owned slaves, and that just six percent of the population were able to vote when George Washington was elected.

‘That means that ”We the People” has never meant all the people,’ Michael emphasized.

‘Six percent? That’s not democracy,’ said Junior, putting his head down on a table. ‘Everything we’ve been taught is a lie.’

Junior’s father Andre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) imagined hosting a show called Democracy in Jeopardy, with ‘all the fun of trivia and all of the unfairness of the American political system.’

In the game, Dre’s white co-worker Josh squared off against his Black colleague Charlie (Deon Telp) and school principal Miss Biggs (Liz Jenkins).

Questions about voting revealed that the president is chosen by an electoral college of ‘538 people you’ve never heard of,’ that not everyone’s vote holds the same weight, and that the electoral college was started because of slavery.

‘The answer is almost always slavery,’ said Dre, asking the contestants, ‘Did you know that four of the first five presidents were from the South? The other, John Adams, was from Boston! The South of the North.’

When Dre went to tally up the points, Josh was declared the winner over Charlie and Miss Biggs, who yelped, ‘But I’m winning!’

‘You were winning,’ Dre conceded ‘But your points only count for three-fifths of a White man. Thanks, Founding Fathers!’

‘I never knew elections were so unfair,’ Junior cried. ‘My entire life, I have heard, ”One person, one vote.” But it turns out that my vote doesn’t matter as much as other people’s?’

He clicked on a kids’ story that promised to teach him about the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave Black men the right to vote in 1870.

‘Ohhhh, hello children,’ Pops cooed onscreen, sipping tea. ‘Would you like to hear a story? You would? It says here it’s all about a young man down South who’s finally old enough to vote! And it’s called Frankie’s Big Day.’

Earl read, ‘Frankie couldn’t help but gloat. ”Look at me! I’m old enough to vote!” He walked to the polls in his new red vest, where a man said, ”Look here, boy! You need a literacy test!” If we say it’s correct then we’ll know, if into the voting booth you can go!’

‘F*** that noise!’ Pops yelled, throwing the book out the window and smashing his teacup.

Junior was dismayed, until he remembered, ‘Thank God for the Voting Rights Act!’

The show cut to an old Dick Cavett program, into which Junior’s mom Rainbow Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross) was inserted, dressed as the 1965 Act.

‘I’m fantastic!’ she said when Dick asked how she was. ‘I remember when I was just a gleam in Dr. King’s eye, and now I’m fully enacted, sitting here with Dick Cavett!’

In the 1990s, the Act hit Ricki Lake’s talk show, thrilled that the South had gone from having three black state legislators to over 250, and Washington had more than forty Black congressmen.

By the time she visited the more contemporary Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Act was a mess, sliding into her chair and saying, ‘It’s been a nightmare since the Supreme Court gutted me.’

Drinking wine, she moaned, ‘Let me tell you. Once the court ruled, a bunch of states drew up new maps diluting minority voting power. They enacted new voter ID laws and killed same-day registration, and cut polling place hours, and I was helpless to stop it.’

Diane Johnson (Marsai Martin), Junior’s sister, showed him a music video for the song Vote by Jhené Aiko about a Black woman unable to vote. She reveled in his misery.

Dre finally told his son that things have historically gotten better in the U.S. ‘when people did whatever it takes to make their votes count,’ citing the Civil Rights Movement.

As Leon Bridges’ That was Yesterday played, he showed Junior a video of people marching for their rights, and the speech made by former President Barack Obama at US representative John Lewis’ funeral.

‘Like John said, if you don’t do everything you can do to change things, then they will remain the same,’ Barack intoned. ‘You only pass this way once. You have to give it all you have.’

Dre movingly explained that ‘There are people out there that are working their a**es off to keep us from voting. They’re only doing that because they’re afraid of our power.’

‘I’m gonna re-register,’ Junior vowed, then asked his dad: ‘Hey, you think I got booted because we have the same name? Like, maybe they thought it was a duplicate?’

‘You really think it’s that simple, son?’ Dre asked him.

‘Nah, it was definitely something sinister,’ Junior agreed, going off to vote early by mail.

The second half of the show featured an animated segment in which Dre’s white boss Stevens sold a Basquiat painting and ran for Senate, figuring it was his due as a white man.

When Dre told Bow at home, she said, ‘It’s normal behavior for guys like him. When the wiener pills stop working, they try to screw the country!’

Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) warned her family about the Citizens United court case that removed limits around corporate campaign spending.

At work, Dre became ‘uncomfortable’ with Stevens’ campaign, which he was forced to support, even wearing a T-shirt reading ‘African American Blacks for Stevens’ at a campaign rally.

In his head, he heard Bow telling him that an inspirational candidate could win, with grassroots support.

‘And do you think I’m the right person?’ he mentally asked her.

‘No, Taylor Swift is,’ Bow said. ‘Of course it’s you, Negro! Do something!’

Dre pushed Stevens aside onstage like Kanye West did to Taylor at the 2009 Grammys.

‘Yo Stevens, I’m really happy for you,’ he shouted. ‘Imma let you finish but I’m right! Andre Johnson is running for Congress!’

Bow was swayed by Andre’s run when he asked her to ‘be my Michelle,’ imagining a glamorous life in which she ultimately ended up president.

‘Yes, we can, Dre!’ she told him.

Dre appointed Junior his campaign manager, consulted with political strategist Stacey Abrams, went on the radio show Desus & Mero, and imagined using holograms at campaign stops.

Stevens, threatened by Dre’s success, showed him a video he’d made, which said, ‘Andre Johnson has over 100 pairs of shoes. What’s he running from? Can we trust a man who still lives with his parents?’

‘Can we make it race-baitier?’ Dre’s co-worker wondered.

Annoyed, Dre told Stevens, ‘When you go low, I go high,’ to which Stevens said, ‘Great! When you go low, we’ll be going to my $20,000 a plate fundraising dinner. My campaign will have made enough money to crush you by the time they serve the koala steaks.’

In a parking garage, a stranger offered Dre money, mumbling that he would only have to ‘do some evil, and next thing you’re in Congress.’

Dre finally took dirty money after being outspent by Stevens, only to find himself indebted to unscrupulous corporate donors, and Stevens lost anyway.