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 "Democratic machine" ...
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City Hall Hiring Scandal
The reporters revealed widespread political patronage in the administration of Mayor Richard J.Daley. Over six months they reported how city jobs and favors are routinely handed out to those who work for organizations that support Daley. The newspaper found that over 1200 people who belong to such groups also hold city jobs.
Tags: FOIA; patronage; cronyism; Hispanic Democratic Organization; 11th Ward Democratic Organization; Richard J. Daley; Democratic machine
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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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Caucuses: Secret Campaign Machines
A Wisconsin State Journal investigation reveals that "four state government agencies costing taxpayers $3.9 million a year were operating as extensive and possibly illegal campaign machines on behalf of lawmakers and candidates selected by the legislative leaders." The series also finds that a political group used a taxpayer-funded office to prepare "smear campaigns" against Democratic politicians; Democratic lawmakers and legislative employees have used their taxpayer-funded jobs to prepare election campaigns and solicit contributions; that a top Republican leader hired a staff member whose only job was to raise money and coordinate donations. The state Ethics Board has failed to stop and punish the ongoing political corruption, the State Journal reports.
Tags: FOI; public records requests; contributions; money and politics; legislature; elections; voters; electorate; Democrats; Republicans
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Incomes, discarded votes may be linked
"Voters in Florida's poorer counties were more than twice as likely as those in a more affluent ones to have their votes for president disregarded," according to a Tallahassee Democrat analysis of the 2000 election... The correlation between discarded ballots and income was stronger than the link between the type of balloting machine used and disregarded ballots. The fact that lower-income counties are likely to have more elderly and new minority voters may also predispose those counties to have more votes disregarded. More first-time and inexperienced minority voters may have gone to the polls after a statewide get-out-the-vote campaign initiated by the state Democratic party and labor and civil rights groups. In counties using optical-scanner ballots, presidential votes were not counted 3.4 percent of the time, compared to 4.7 for those counties using punch-card ballots. However, counties using punch-card balloting had higher average incomes than those using optical-scanner balloting: $24, 849 for punch cars and $21, 464 for optical scanners."
Tags: elections; elderly voters; board of elections; error rates; income levels; presidential election 2000; Bush; Gore; discarded votes; Florida recount
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Drug Pump's Deadly Trail
"This project questions the standard conclusion that a great deal of blame falls on nursing errors - especially medication errors. In many cases, it's not the people. It's the machine. The Tallahassee Democrat shows that one of the most common hospital bedside devices - the drug pump - is so prone to human error that it invites mistake. What's worse, when misprogrammed, the pump defaults to a setting that, when used with morphine, is instantly lethal."
Tags: nurses; medical devices; medicine; hospitals Abbott Laboratories
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The Gore Machine
The Washington Post Magazine reports that in the sprint for campaign cash, he's got the best staff, the most experience and a tested game plan. More than any other presidential campaign in modern times, the 2000 race is about money - raising a lot of it and raising it fast and raising it without getting caught in the tangled web of rules and regulations that govern the process. But Gore's greatest strength could also prove to be his greatest vulnerability. His Buddhist temple visit, his 52 solicitation calls from the White House and his clumsy "no controlling legal authority" public defense were among the lowlights of the raucous 1996 campaign and its aftermath. Presidential hopefuls such as Democratic Bill Bradley and Republican John McCain are already seeking to portray the vice president as just another sleazy, business-as-usual politician, hat in hand.
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Inside the Money Machine: How the Democrats Went Wild
The New Yorker chronicles some of the more controversial fund-raising tactics used by the Democrats, including a $250,000 per person tour of and barbecue at the White House.
Tags: Clinton
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Brooklyn Political Scandal
The series exposes the Brooklyn New York Democratic machine, using the money of widows and orphans to pay back political favors by manipulating the county Surrogate's Court. Millions of dollars of work had been doled out by the court judge to lawyers who gave money to his election campaign.
Tags: Politics; Politicians; Courts; Elections