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I once was a Democrat long long ago for my very first election. I was asked to be an election judge at that time in Chicago. Shortly thereafter I turned Republican. Too much corruption. THIS IS HOW DEMOCRATS RIG ELECTIONS! THIS STILL GOES ON TODAY.. * * * HOW THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE EXPOSED CITY VOTER FRAUD IN 1972 — AND WON A PULITZER PRIZE By: Chicago Tribune UPDATED: November 3, 2022 at 3:20 p.m. For years, vote fraud in Chicago was a topic like the weather. People talked about it, often deplored it, but no one believed you could do anything about it. That was before the Tribune launched its year-long, all-out war against the entrenched and cynical system of rigging elections that had become a way of life here. Yet every election day, votes are cast in the names of these missing persons — in violation of the law. The real boss in these polling places is the Democratic precinct captain, tho by law he has no right in the polling place at all, except to cast his own vote. His job is to round up votes for his party’s candidates. When he picks all the judges and can order them around like so many flunkies, the potential for fraud is enormous. The Democratic precinct captain is, of course, a party patronage worker employed in some government office controlled by a leader of the party organization. He will keep his patronage job as long as he functions successfully as a precinct captain. His interest in honest elections is often overshadowed by his desire to remain employed. There was campaigning in the polling place, party workers went into the voting booths with voters and tampered with the voting machines — all in violation of the law. In many of the precincts, the so-called Republican judges who were supposed to be serving with the reporter-judges admitted being Democrats in DISGUISE. As a result of this campaign, veteran vote-fraud fighters acclaimed last November’s election in Chicago as the most honest in decades. The effort won the Pulitzer Prize for general local reporting, the most coveted award in journalism. (Editor’s note: It was the same year The Washington Post won a Pulitzer for its investigation of the Watergate scandal and Nick Ut won a Pulitzer for spot news photography with his photo of children — including “Napalm girl” Phan Thi Kim Phuc — fleeing a bombing during the Vietnam War.) Here are some of the highlights of The Tribune’s campaign against vote fraud: More than 1,000 specific acts of fraud exposed and documented from the primary election of March 21, 1972. Seventy-nine election workers indicted for vote fraud in the March primary by a federal grand jury called as a result of The Tribune disclosures. Thirty election workers found guilty and sentenced for fraud. Forty-four indicted election workers awaiting trial and five others cleared of wrongdoing. Twenty-six reporters assigned to work on different aspects of the investigation. Many served as election judges and poll watchers in both the March primary and the November general election. One worked undercover as a clerk in the Board of Election Commissioners. Chicago Tribune managing editor Maxwell McCrohon holds up an early edition of the paper’s May 8, 1973 edition. The Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished general or spot reporting within a newspaper’s local area of circulation for uncovering flagrant violations of voting procedures in the primary election of March 21, 1972. Four of the five reporters who worked on the series are behind McCrohon, from left to right: William Mullen, William Currie, George Bliss and Pamela Zekman. The fifth reporter was Philip Caputo. But the statistics, impressive as some of them may be, don’t begin to tell the vast scope of the project or show just how much hard work went into it. No one has attempted to total the thousands of man-hours spent by Tribune reporters — often in tedious chores such as poring over election records to dig out evidence of fraud. No one has kept track of the miles of city streets walked by Tribune staff members to expose GHOST VOTERS and track down cheating election officials. And no one kept count of the threats, slurs and other abuse some reporters endured — in polling places and elsewhere — from those who didn’t want to see elections conducted honestly in Chicago. The idea for a comprehensive campaign against vote fraud came in December, 1971, from George Bliss, now chief investigative reporter for The Tribune, then head of its investigative task force. Bliss, a veteran Tribune staff member, won a Pulitzer Prize of his own in 1962 for exposing corruption in the Metropolitan Sanitary District. With the support of Clayton Fitzpatrick, editor of The Tribune, Bliss spent all of 1972 directing the campaign to expose vote fraud with the skill of a master craftsman. Members of the Task Force, Pamela Zekman, William Currie, now an assistant city editor, and Philip Caputo, now The Tribune’s Rome correspondent, played major roles in the campaign thuout the year. Other reporters were enlisted as needed. Among them were Ronald Kotulak, science editor, and Casey Bukro, environment editor, both prize-winners in their own fields, who worked in precinct polling places to gather evidence of fraud. With so many reporters involved, the campaign was primarily a team effort. But the work of one reporter was in a class by itself. William Mullen, a general assignment reporter, wangled a clerk’s job in the office of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and gathered material that guaranteed the success of The Tribune’s campaign. The election board keeps the records and administers elections in Chicago. The office is completely controlled by the RULING DEMOCRATIC PARTY here and has long been suspected as the NERVE CENTER FOR RIGGING ELECTIONS! The only trouble was that no outsider ever got into a position where he could see how things worked. Mullen changed all that. With an unassuming manner that disguises his quick mind and sharp eye for detail, Mullen won acceptance by the Democratic Party patronage workers who staff the office and soon got access to the files. In those files lay the whole sordid story of vote fraud in Chicago. Obtaining this material was essential to the success of Bliss’s plan. Chicago newspapers, including The Tribune, had been writing about vote fraud for generations. The stories were almost always the same: Many charges, a few facts, and no results. The Tribune’s new campaign differed from the others. It concerned itself not with accusations alone, but with facts — the kind of overwhelming evidence a prosecutor can take into court to convict the guilty. Once he had the facts, Bliss knew exactly where to take them — to James R. Thompson, the United States attorney in Chicago. Thompson, a Republican appointee, already had a reputation of being a smart, tough, and thoroughly honest prosecutor. Bliss knew that if The Tribune got the evidence, Thompson would prosecute. It was important that some election cheats went to jail — as a warning to others. The failure to convict was what made previous newspaper efforts to expose vote fraud a joke in the eyes of those rigging elections. As soon as the newspaper stories stopped, the politicians went back to their old tricks. Bliss’ plan was based on exposing fraud in the March primary in such massive detail that the heat generated would ensure an honest election in November. In late 1971, Bliss knew that Mayor Daley’s regular Democratic organization faces some tough primary fights from Daniel Walker, Edward V. Hanrahan, and others. The potential for fraud was there. The Tribune began its investigation where many others ended — with a search for ghost voters. These are the thousands of people who wind up listed as registered voters in certain inner-city and transient neighborhoods, even tho they don’t live there. Some have died, others moved away years ago. Yet EVERY ELECTION DAY, VOTES ARE CAST IN THE NAMES OF THESE MISSING PERSONS — in VIOLATION of the LAW. Before the primary in March, the Task Force pinpointed 14 precincts in 6 West and South Side wards where past experience in vote fraud investigations indicated election day cheating could be expected. Then, registered letters were sent to 5,495 persons listed as voters in those precincts. About 700 letters, just under 13 per cent, came back with the notation that the person couldn’t be found. Task Force members, personally checking out each suspected ghost, confirmed that the vast majority were dead, or had moved. Sixty-two of them were registered as living on various vacant lots or in abandoned buildings. The Tribune drew up lists of these ghosts and set out to see if attempts would be made to cast ballots in their names in the primary. This meant getting reporters into the polling places in an official capacity — as election judges, for example. The effort paid off. Votes by the score were cast in the name of the ghosts despite challenges by reporters serving as judges. This was possible because of the way polling places are operated in some areas of the city. The REAL BOSS in these POLLING PLACES is the DEMOCRATIC PRECINCT CAPTAIN, tho by law he has NO RIGHT IN THE POLLING PLACE at all, except to cast his own vote. His job is to round up votes for his party’s candidates. When he picks all the judges and can order them around like so many flunkies, the potential for fraud is enormous. The Democratic precinct captain is, of course, a party patronage worker employed in some government office controlled by a leader of the party organization. He will keep his patronage job as long as he functions successfully as a precinct captain. His interest in honest elections is often overshadowed by his desire to keep his job.