Lack of Volunteers Led Sanders Campaign to Request Fewer Polling Stations
On Sunday afternoon, as lines in Puerto Rico stretched to 90 minutes or even two hours in some areas, the Bernie Sanders campaign had already accused the Democratic Party of voter suppression. On social media, comments and accusations of voter fraud floated by.
Some claims of voter suppression were propelled by several articles, including a Saturday article at The Hill: “Sanders campaign accuses Puerto Rico Dem officials of fraud.”
That article details the Sanders campaign’s claim that officials from the Puerto Rico Democratic Party did not certify Sanders’ officials who were to help prison inmates vote.
“Our Bernie Sanders officials were never certified. We had 40 officials we submitted in time for the prisons. Not one of them was certified, while all of [Clinton’s] went in. Attorney Manny Suárez had to go in order for us to be let in. This is a great fraud,†Sanders’ campaign official Betsy Franceschini said.
Meanwhile, MSNBC National Reporter Tony Dokoupil announced on-air that the reason the polling stations had been cut so dramatically, by two-thirds, from 1510 to 432, was because the Bernie Sanders campaign did not have enough volunteers to monitor polling stations.
The Sanders campaign and the Puerto Rico Democratic Party settled on the 432 number as a result, Dokoupil reports, adding this quote from Liza Ortiz, National Committeewoman of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico:
So, instead of supposed voters suppression or voter fraud, the long lines were at least in part a result of a poor ground game by the Sanders campaign in Puerto Rico, per MSNBC’s report.
It should also be noted that the unincorporated U.S. territory is in debt by about $70 billion, forcing austerity measures that include slashing the amount of money for primaries. The GOP primary in March was worse. Polling stations cut from 1500 to 110.
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