During this watershed presidential campaign comes a timely documentary on “P.O.V.,” airing at 10 tonight on Maine Public Television.

“Election Day,” co-produced by Monroe native Dallas Brennan Rexler, takes viewers inside the events of Nov. 2, 2004, which capped the first presidential campaign since the controversial election of George W. Bush in 2000.

The documentary makes a street-level examination of what the election means to various people from across the country. They range from a Republican poll-watcher in a Democratic district in Chicago to a first-time volunteer in the Cleveland suburbs to a volunteer organizing a get-out-the-vote campaign on a South Dakota reservation.

The voters profiled range from organic farmers in Wisconsin to factory workers in Oklahoma to an ex-con in New York who’s voting for the first time.

These 11 stories, filmed over a day running from dawn to well past midnight, capture the attitudes of American voters, who, while disillusioned by recent political events, still believe in the process to effect change.

“Election Day” marks a first for “P.O.V.” In addition to its debut tonight, it will be streamed in its entirety all month on the show’s Web site, www.pbs.org/pov.

This intriguing documentary accomplishes the filmmakers’ stated goal of showing “the experiences of the citizens who make democracy tick.” Beneath the political machinery and the pundits, it’s the people who are at the heart of the process, and “Election Day” makes that very clear.