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" ...
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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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Empty-desk epidemic
For years, Chicago officials published upbeat statistics that masked a crisis in the city's schools: Nearly 32,000 of the city's K-8 grade students — or roughly 1 in 8 —miss a month or more of class per year, while others simply vanish from school without a trace. This devastating pattern of absenteeism, which disproportionately affects African-Americans and children with disabilities, came to light only after Chicago Tribune reporters dug it out during a years-long FOIA battle to obtain internal district data.
Tags: K-12 education; schools; absenteesim; Chicago; statistics manipulation
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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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Class of 2011
An examination on Chicago's Marshall High, a school with a history of troubles, found that the school threatened to derail the success of the Chicago Public Schools' $80 million project to overhaul failing schools.
Tags: absentee; school registration; teaching; education; elementary; secondary education;
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Ghost Schools
Charter high schools operated by for-profit corporations are experiencing the nation's worst rates of rampant absenteeism with many campuses reporting daily truancy rates of more than 50 percent of student enrollment. The investigation found that some school officials have learned it's a profitable business model to be paid millions of tax dollars not to teach kids who don't show up. The trend is worst in Ohio.
Tags: education; charter school; absenteeism; student; enrollment; school funding
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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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Small-Town Election, Big-Time Trouble
The stories chronicled election fraud in two small communities. In the first community, one candidate's mother headed up the registrar's office, while in the other community, Gate City, the mayor manipulated the absentee voting system to his advantage, sometimes filling the forms of elderly absentee voters himself.
Tags: election fraud; absentee voting; voter registration; Roanoke; Scott County; Gate City; Willie Mae Kilgore; Charles Dougherty; Jerry Kilgore; Terry Kilgore; State Board of Elections; campaign donations; Republican Party
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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