The Political Organization Disclosure site allows wild card searches. To conduct a wild card search, use an asterisk (*) to truncate a word or phrase to the portion you require in your results. The asterisk represents a wild card because it stands for ANY characters. There are three types of wild card searches: Right Truncation, Left Truncation, and Middle Truncation. Right truncation occurs when you end a word or phrase with a wild card character. This action results in a search for words matching the characters before the asterisk, and ignoring all characters to the right. For example, a search containing the phrase Smith* may produce results containing Smith, Smithson, Smith for President, etc. Left truncation occurs when you begin a word or phrase with a wild card character. This action results in a search for words matching the characters after the asterisk, and ignoring all characters to the left. For example, a search containing the phrase *tion may produce results containing organization, relation, gas station, etc. Middle truncation occurs when you place a wild card character in the middle of a word or phrase. This action results in a search for words matching the characters before and after the asterisk, and ignoring all characters in the middle. For example, a search containing the phrase org*tion may produce results containing organization, organized nation, etc. Where in the search the asterisk or wild card is placed affects the search results. The information entered in a field by a filer is treated as a single data string. The Political Organization Disclosure site searches for exact words in the order you enter them. The following examples illustrate various searches including wild card searches. Generally, a search with fewer words yields more results. Name as entered On Form 8872 Search criteria Found with search criteria? Y/N Reason expected result is not found John B Smith, MD Smith Y John B Smith, MD John B. Smith, MD Y John B Smith, MD John B Smith Y John B Smith, MD John B Smith* Y John B Smith, MD *Smith N The query is looking for strings beginning with ANYTHING and ending with Smith. This string ends with Smith, MD. John B Smith, MD Smith* N The query is looking for strings beginning with Smith and ending with ANYTHING. This string begins with John. Searching with *smith* or smith would find John B Smith, MD. John B Smith, MD John Smith N The query is looking for the existence (anywhere in the field) of the exact string John Smith. The actual data is John B Smith. John B Smith, MD *John B Smith N The query is looking for strings beginning with ANYTHING and ending with John B Smith. This string ends with John B Smith, MD.
