By: Joe Strupp Campus Newspaper Reported Election Irregularities
Michael McGraw says his dream job is to cover Chicago city
politics. After a couple of weeks writing about alleged student
voting fraud at Marquette University - and facing pressure
from the local district attorney to provide confidential source
information - he may be ready for a Windy City beat.
Since Election Day, McGraw and fellow student reporter Adam
Kirby, both 19, have broken several stories in the Marquette
Tribune student newspaper alleging that students at the
Jesuit-run university in Milwaukee voted more than once. The high
point came last Tuesday when they published a poll of 1,000
students that claimed nearly 20% had cast multiple ballots.
"It's been a real experience," said McGraw. "It's been great to
get out there and get to the bottom of things."
But the campus scoop also gave the student newsies a lesson in
source protection and legal battles as the Milwaukee County
district attorney's office sought information on who the
reporters surveyed and what kinds of results they found.
National news organizations - from The Associated Press to
ABC News - also put the paper's Nov. 14 poll story under
intense scrutiny, interviewing the campus scribes and ultimately
questioning the validity of their claims. Even the local
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel questioned some of their
reporting, contending the claim that up to 170 students voted for
write-in candidates did not jibe with official canvass numbers
showing only 12 write-in votes among the Marquette precincts.
Standing by his story, McGraw said his reporting began after he
became suspicious of voting procedures when he went to the polls
on Nov. 7 and saw students casting ballots without identification
or proof of residency. "It just came about," the sophomore said.
"The election people were obviously overwhelmed and
disorganized."
After voting himself, McGraw went to several other student voting
sites on or near campus and heard stories of students casting
votes at more than one site and taking handfuls of ballots. "We
got on the idea that something was going on and did more
reporting," he said.
The first story ran in the semiweekly campus paper Nov. 9. McGraw
and Kirby then set out to conduct their poll over the weekend of
Nov. 11 and 12, which took about eight hours and included
interviews with about 1,000 students, most by phone.
"It was definitely the hardest work I've done as a journalist,"
Kirby told E&P Online about the polling effort. "But it was
exhilarating. We were finding out something that people needed to
know."
But representatives of the district attorney's office visited the
university last week seeking information on which students were
polled and where they voted. The Tribune staff declined to
release the information on the advice of William Elliott, dean of
the college of communications, who refused to let investigators
speak to the students.
"We are not giving up any confidential information," said
Elliott. "The D.A. was interested in knowing the percentage of
interviews in the precincts and we will not release it because it
is protected."
Assistant District Attorney Michael Mahoney, who is leading the
investigation, did not return calls seeking comment. Attorney
Kendall Harrison, who has been advising the newspaper, said the
investigators must first seek to find the information they want
elsewhere before demanding it from students.
"They need to conduct a very thorough investigation first under
state law," said Harrison. "They also must show that the
information sought will lead to material evidence in the case."
Elliott said the investigators did not threaten any legal action
to force the newspaper to release information, but asked to
submit a list of questions for the reporters related to their
news-gathering process. As of Friday, the questions had not
arrived.
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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