The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Absentee ballots" ...
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Voter Patrol
The NEWS4 I-Team dug through more than 600 phone and email tips to break three major election stories before, during and immediately after the presidential election. About two weeks before the election, we asked viewers to tell us when they saw problems when they voted. The response was immediate. Our two-man team went through every tip and beat out the AP, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other local stations on the biggest election stories in our area. Our first story revealed absentee ballots sent out in Maryland were missing their second page, which contained the most contested ballot initiatives including legalized gambling, same-sex marriage and the DREAM Act. This story was picked up across the nation and led to statements made by the Maryland Governor and the various interest groups involved in the ballot issues.
Tags: Elections; presidential elections; votes; presidential reporting; ballot issues
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Who Can Vote? Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed
“Who Can Vote?” is the 2012 project of News21, a multimedia investigative reporting initiative funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Twenty-four students from 11 universities across the country worked on the project under the direction of journalism professionals. The project, launched just before the 2012 political conventions, consists of more than 20 in-depth reports and rich multimedia content that includes interactive databases and data visualizations, video profiles and photo galleries. Student reporters conducted an exhaustive public records search and built a comprehensive data base of voter fraud cases that revealed: • Since 2000, while fraud has occurred, the number of cases is infinitesimal. • In-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tough voter ID laws, is virtually non-existent. Only 10 such cases over more than a decade were reported. • There is more fraud in absentee ballots and voter registration than any other category. The analysis shows 329 cases of absentee ballot fraud and 364 cases of registration fraud. A required photo ID at the polls would not have prevented these cases. • Voters make a lot of mistakes, from people accidentally voting twice to voting in the wrong precinct. However, few cases reveal a coordinated effort to change election results. • Election officials make a lot of mistakes, giving voters ballots when they’ve already voted, for instance. Election workers are often confused about voters’ eligibility requirements.
Tags: elections; fraud; public records; voters; ballot
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Making Mistakes: Absentee Ballot Investigation
The story reveals problems with the counting of absentee ballots for the 2008 US Senate election recount. Apparently, absentee ballots were being accepted and counted, even though they didn’t follow the strict rules of the state. The final margin of victory was “312 votes”. Not a large number and leads to suspicion, which has made way for changes in the way future votes will be counted.
Tags: Al Franken; Norm Coleman; Senator; state government; general elections; senate seat; election judge
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Vote early, vote often
Joint venture between WSB-TV in Atlanta and WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. The investigation uncovered voter fraud on the eve of the 2008 presidential election and and proved there to be no federal oversight to prevent voters from casting ballots in multiple states. The reporters took advantage of newly enacted voting laws in their states to track and compare the master voter rolls and early voting records of registered voters in Florida, Georgia and Ohio. They found more than 100,000 people who appeared to be registered in more than one states, with the potential to vote in both. They also found three individuals who already had used new early voting laws to cast ballots in both Florida and Georgia, a felony crime. They found an additional 12 people who had already voted in one state and also received an absentee ballot from another.
Tags: voter fraud; 2008 presidential election; Ohio; Florida; Georgia; absentee ballots; duplicate votes
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Will Your Vote Count?
Problems with electronic voting machines during Maryland's primary election in September prompted top state officials to urge voters to cast absentee ballots in the November general election. However, there were serious problems with absentee ballot applications and processing. Among the findings: 40% of the people who requested absentee ballots in Baltimore County received them too late for their votes to be counted. The application said the ballots needed to be sent back to the election board a week in advance of the election day; however, the Baltimore election board director said that ballots needed to be returned three weeks ahead of time.
Tags: voting; electronic voting; absentee voting; Baltimore; Maryland; elections; election law
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Detroit Election Fraud
The Detroit News found negligence in election oversight and election fraud in Detroit. Reporters found that city employees were coaxing nursing home residents to vote, ballots were sent to juvenile detention homes, the voting rolls had 300,000 registrants who had moved or died, and people were voting from abandoned homes and vacant lots. After the story ran, the FBI and state officials seized city voting records.
Tags: Detroit; elections; election fraud; absentee ballots; voter registration; FOI; senior citizens; city clerk; absentee ballots
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Investigation of Election Problems
This series is an extensive look at problems that exist in the election system in Wisconsin. According to this investigation, the state runs a high risk of massive recounts in future presidential elections because of the inaccuracy of the election data and voter registration. What they found were thousands of voters with invalid address, ineligible voters who were allowed to cast their ballots on election day, and polling place log books listing hundreds of people as having voted twice. This series by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel prompted a mayoral task force to investigate election problems in Milwaukee, state-wide audit of the election system, as well as a state-federal investigation into voter fraud.
Tags: CAR; election data; voter fraud; November 2004 Election; absentee ballots; Election Commission; polls; challenged ballots; FOIA; ballots
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Voter Fraud
In the light of the Democratic primaries in Lake County, Ind., the Post-Tribune finds voters registered from vacant lots and abandoned houses, people voting who hadn't lived in cities for years, or who were dead. The report also reveals how Lake County's political machine took undue advantage of the poor, uneducated and non-English speaking population. Illegal votes were found to have been cast by a police cheif, election worker, a state representative and his parents, and individuals from the house of the county prosecutor.
Tags: Absentee ballots; election integrity committee; Kenneth Anderson; Lake County Government Complex
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Abnormal volume of "disabled" voters raises suspicions
Immediately following the municipal elections in Hearne, Texas, rumors started floating about voter fraud. There seemed to be too many absentee voters, too many disabled voters, and too many voters all together for such an election. It turned out, the mayor (who won by a landslide) and the election judge locked up the absentee ballots. The mayor then subpoenaed the ballots. The publicity from the story led a resident to come forward who had made photocopies of a portion of the applications prior to the election. The reporters went door to door to verify the names on some suspicious looking applications. Some homes were vacant. Handwriting experts verified that some signatures on the applications were most likely forged by one person.
Tags: municipal election; absentee voters; disabled voters; absentee ballot applications; Secretary of State election office; the Freedom of Information Foundation; Robertson County Republican Party; Texas Municipal Clerks Association Inc.
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The Real Cheaters; Absentee Minded
A Riverfront Times investigation reveals that in Dallas "ballot bounty hunters are hired to fan out through minority neighborhoods and "assist" voters in applying for and casting absentee ballots." The story provides a glimpse on the real cost of political corruption. The reporter interviews a number of defrauded voters, mostly elderly African-Americans, and describes how they ballots have been taken from them and who has done it. "Arcane election laws and lax enforcement make the process seem not quite illegal, though plenty sleazy," The Observer reports.
Tags: elections; Dallas City Council; school boards; candidates; politics; minorities; poverty