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 "minority voters" ...
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Judging the Jury
For the first time ever, reporters at WHDH-TV in Boston analyzed the racial makeup of federal juries in Massachusetts. What they found was that, in some cases, jury pools had no people of color whatsoever, which led to all white juries. According to their investigation, minorities remained underrepresented in the justice system as much as 50 percent of the time. The reason? Jury pools are chosen according to who responds to the town census. Because it is an unfunded mandate, many low income neighborhoods do a bad job of responding to the census, while the affluent neighborhoods fair much better. These are the neighborhoods with the highest returns and they are the ones repeatedly being called for jury duty.
Tags: jury pools; voter registration; underrepresented minorities; racial makeup; town census; U.S. Census; FOIA
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Problems Cited for District Plan
This story file contains multiple articles about New York City's attempt to redistrict before the 1991 City Council elections. The new districts were supposed to allow for more minority representation, but Hispanic residents felt like the changes put them at a disadvantage. The article explores these complaints and finds them to be valid. Eventually the U.S. Justice Department declared the redistricting to be illegal. These articles cover all aspects of the issue and follow the dispute all the way to Washington.
Tags: racial gerrymandering; voter fraud; census; population; minority representation; aldermen
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Number Crunching. What does it take to deem a business minority-owned? Corporate council rethinks its longtime definition and backs off 51% rule. Mr. Barfield's IPO in limbo.
According to the article, "At a time when courts and voters have scaled back racial-preference programs, corporate America is headed along a different road. The National Minority Supplier Development Council, comprising representatives from the biggest U.S. corporations, certifies 'minority ownership.' In October, its 80-member board is likely to loosen its definition of minority-owned, which in government and corporate procurement has always required at least 51% minority ownership. Most board members expect the new requirement will be closer to 20%, along with proof of minority management."
Tags: minorities; employment; business; National Minority Supplier Development Council; corporations; management
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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
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Swing Districts Favored Over Minority Areas
Chicago Reporter looks at how "$780 million was doled out of Illinois over the past two years." The money was portion of the $12-billion Illinois Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools and Transportation (FIRST), the story reveals. The millions were given to political party leaders to spend on projects aimed to boost legislators in politically vulnerable districts. Lawmakers in white districts received more than those in black and Latino districts, the publication reports. A major finding is that, at the time when Illinois entered a fiscal crisis, the "decisions about who got the money and for what projects were settled behind closed doors, without public oversight."
Tags: Illinois public records law; economy; public infrastructure; money and politics; Illinois House; Illinois Senate; voters; state government; state legislature; minorities; civil rights; CAR
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Records: Illegally cast ballots not rare
The Atlanta Constitution looks at the existing and the potential scope of voting errors and fraud in Georgia. The investigation finds that "the actual number of ballots cast by the dead is fairly small - 5,412 in the past 20 years," but "the ranks of potential dead voters have grown dramatically in recent years." The story analyses the most common errors in voting records and the loopholes in some election laws. The report also describes the voter identification requirements.
Tags: voting; ballots; death; voting rolls; minority voters; elections; discrimination; Voting Rights Act; Motor Voter Law.
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The other election scandal
Rolling Stone questions the laws of Florida and eleven other states that have prohibited residents convicted of felony from casting votes until the end of their lives. The author looks at this issue as "the worst violation of the democratic process," since 5 million free U.S. citizens are disenfranchised. The analysis points out that more than half of the legally prevented form casting their votes are black or Latino, and finds that since 1865 forbidding ex-felons to vote has been "one device to limit the political power of African Americans." The story sheds light on a class-action lawsuit in Florida, which can make disenfranchisement an issue in the 2002 gubernatorial election.
Tags: African-Americans; black men; minorities; crime; elections; politics; Democrats; Republicans; voting; prisoners; black-voter participation
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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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How the GOP Gamed the System in Florida
Lantigua takes a look at the disfranchisement of minority voters in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. . He writes, " disfranchisement 2000-style did not depend on intimidation...Instead Florida state election officials and hired data crunchers used computers to target thousands of voters, many of whom were then purged from the voter rolls without reason." State officials deny racist intent in their creation of laws that remove a felon's right to vote; Florida's prison population is 54 percent black while its state population is only 15 percent.. State officials also cannot explain why thousands of other Floridians who have no criminal record, also had their right to vote taken away. Lantigua investigates how legislation and election underfunding may have cost 200,000 Floridians their votes.
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Democracy in Chains
Village Voice take a deeper look into how African American voters in several Florida counties became disenfranchised during the 2000 presidential election. The article examines various voter complaints and problems faced by minority voters and how they may all be the symptom of a greater civil rights problem in America.
Tags: Voting; elections; civil rights