Rhode Island provides an excellent case study in how corruption works.  Elections aren’t stolen at the ballot box (except as a last resort).  Rather, corruption rigs the game at every opportunity — buying and coercing votes so that they don’t have to be stolen or manufactured.  The only way to stop this is to get the money out of politics, and the only way to do that is to get as much power out of politics as feasible.

The reminder for these thoughts was the Providence Journal’s searchable tool for legislative grants, which House and Senate leaders hand out to legislators if they behave so they can buy good will (i.e., votes) in their districts.  It looks like the Projo duplicated the data while setting up the tool, so check it against the House and Senate lists, but it’s instructive to look through the grants in your community.