Bernie Sanders campaign asked for a reduction of the number of polling places in Puerto Rico!

[onehandle]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by BooScout (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: MSNBC

The Sanders campaign reduced the number of polling places because of a LACK OF SANDERS POLL VOLUNTEERS!

DNC member Nancy Ortiz's news was reported live on MSNBC!

Voter Suppression!



Read more: Link to source

[LiberalFighter]

1. Just heard that. Wow!

What that demonstrates is a lack of support for Sanders in Puerto Rico if they couldn't get enough Sanders' volunteers to monitor.

[JimDandy]

54. Highly doubtful the Sanders campaign made any such request. They win when there is huge turnout.

This claim doesn't even make sense based on that. They have wanted more polling stations this primary season, never less.

[JimDandy]

67. HA HA HA HA. Sanders campaign just released a statement refuting this as a LIE of course.

The Clinton Campaign's F--lying Circus of Flying Chairs has slunk away from the building!

[Happyhippychick]

2. I guess he was right, it was rigged.

Against Hillary.

[roguevalley]

19. the dnc. what a reliable source. not

[Happyhippychick]

20. It couldn't be that Bernie lied, or didn't know what his campaign was doing

That would be painful.

[George II]

32. NOT "the DNC".

[MADem]

43. The DNC is not the source. Good grief, try harder.

The LOCAL party is the one that reported this, and it was SANDERS' people who requested the reduction in polling places.

A reduction in polling places, resulting in long lines and delays, served to benefit Sanders. Why? His supporters are younger and have more stamina to stand in long lines. Clinton supporters trend older and don't do as well having to wait hours to vote.


http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282285-puerto-rico-long-lines-polling-stations


What an ignominious revelation for his campaign.

[JimDandy]

68. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Statement from Sanders campaign says this story is a LIE.

If you had thought about it for even one second this story didn't make sense. Sanders has consistently spent this election season trying to INCREASE access to the polls, because he wins when there is huge turnout!

I mean come on! So who in the Republican party can be blamed for the reduced polling stations in their PR Primary? Who didn't provide enough poll watchers then?

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

The Clinton Campaign's F--lying Circus of Flying Chairs strikes again.

[MADem]

71. No--not wrong. The PR Dem Party was prepared to open

1510 polling places, but ONLY if the candidates could cough up enough mandatory volunteers.

They put out a formal call for volunteers in May.

Sanders didn't have enough.

It is not optional to have a vote monitor from EACH candidate at every location.

Clinton would have won by eighty percent if they'd opened every polling location--maybe more.

[JimDandy]

74. Yes, WRONG! That is very different from the LIE in that story all you Clinton supporters pushed.

Sensible, intelligent people knew what the real explanation was.

But noooooo, Clinton's camp wanted to spin, spin, spin this into a lie and smear a candidate that has worked all his life to see that people aren't disenfranchised.

And you helped. Bless Your Heart!!

[MADem]

84. I have family down there-I think I am in a good position to know what was going on.

Back in MAY the PRDP asked for volunteers from both candidates' campaigns to sign up to work the polls AND serve as vote counting monitors (there must be 1 of each at every location). Sanders could not field sufficient volunteers to open all the polling places.

Clinton won EVERY district--every single one. The margins would have been larger if more people were allowed to vote. Sanders, by not having enough volunteers/campaign workers to help, prevented many Clinton supporters (who are older and can't stand in line in hot/humid weather for 2 or more hours) from voting.

[misterhighwasted]

36. Thank you ^This

Tried to rig it against Hillary.
And yesterday in VIslands we find out they stole two ballot boxes from the prisoner voters, among other things.
Time to call his campaign what it really is.

Been rigging it against Hillary & the true Dems for some time now.

[MADem]

44. It started with the theft of that computer data, and continued from there. nt

[misterhighwasted]

49. Oh yes it did. There's a pattern and everyone sees it.

Time this primary comes to an end.
Berns got some loose ends to clean up with the FEC.

Pres Obama will be in NY for 2 fundraisers on wed.
The day after Hillary seals the deal with our final Super Tuesday of the 2016 Primary.

Hmm, wonder what he'll talk about??

[JimDandy]

69. The Sanders Campaign just put out a statement that this story is a complete LIE!

And if their statement could talk, this one would sound PISSED at the allegations.

Sanders has spent this entire election season trying to INCREASE access to the polls, because he wins when voter turnout is huge.

Clearly you all didn't let the cognitive dissonance between that fact and this story bother you, though.

The Clinton Campaigns F-lying Circus of Flying Chairs...

[misterhighwasted]

85. I'm sure they quickly "put out a statement", which will be quickly followed by a lawsuit

Its become a predictable pattern.

[Beacool]

3. I just heard it too.

A party official in PR said that that it was the Sanders' people who requested less polling places because they didn't have enough volunteers to monitor the hand count of the paper ballots.

[passiveporcupine]

7. didn't have enough volunteers to monitor the hand count of the paper ballots.

so they couldn't observe if the voting was legal in a system run by the establishment?

But, they had the power (being non-establishment) to change the number of polling places controlled by the establishment.

Yeah, sounds plausible to me.


And the story is being pushed by the establishment too, right?

Bernie Sanders campaign officials and supporters are worried that a series of problems, ranging from drastically reduced polling stations to poll workers who can’t get certified, might be signs of voter suppression or election fraud. Some of these problems wouldn’t just hurt Sanders supporters, but could reduce everyone’s access to voting during the primary. What exactly is happening? And is it some form of fraud or voter suppression, or just a series of poor management decisions?

Here’s what you need to know.

Polling Stations in Puerto Rico Were Reduced from 1,510 to 432

This is especially a problem because polling hours are only from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time. This could lead to long lines or some voters even being turned away, like they were in Arizona.

Sanders Poll Workers Are Having Trouble Getting Certified
The Bernie Sanders officials could never get certified, said Betsy Franceschini, Sanders’ Hispanic vote director. She said they submitted all their officials in time, but none were certified while all of Clinton’s were:

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 theirs (Clinton’s) went in. Attorney Manny Suárez had to go in order for us to be let in. This is a great fraud.”

While Sanders poll workers couldn’t get certified on Saturday, it appeared that Puerto Rico Democrats may have still been recruiting Clinton poll workers at the same time:

http://heavy.com/news/2016/06/puerto-rico-primary-election-fraud-voter-suppression-polling-places-workers-certified-bernie-sanders/

Much more about potential fraud with this primary at the link...but I don't expect Hill camp to read it. It might cause too much cognitive dissonance.

Yeah, no problems here...no sireee!

[Beacool]

11. Reducing polling sites hurt Hillary more than Sanders.

She was always going to win big in PR.

[passiveporcupine]

15. Sorry, you are wrong.

this whole system was rigged for her by the DNC in Puerto Rico. Even the head of the DNC was advertising not to vote for Bernie.

Still, fewer polling places could spell trouble for Sanders on the island territory, where Clinton been long believed to be favored by voters and leaders.

http://www.bustle.com/articles/163838-why-puerto-ricos-democratic-primary-polling-centers-were-closed-shortly-before-the-june-primary

One of those leaders who favors Clinton appears to be Prats. Prats has previously spoken in support of Clinton, and she has counted him in her court for the current election along with other Puerto Rican political figures. He even co-chaired her 2008 primary campaign in Puerto Rico and co-authored a book on that campaign.

Roberto Prats Palerm (born 1966) is a former Senator of Puerto Rico, a lawyer, and a former candidate for Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the elections of 2004. He is affiliated and a member of the Governing Board of the Popular Democratic Party and chairman of the Democratic Party (United States) in Puerto Rico.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Prats

[pnwmom]

21. Nothing in your link explains why it would be worse for Bernie. nt

[LuvLoogie]

38. Weaver should file another lawsuit to cover for the ineptness of his campaign.

Rallies and suck ass turnout equal DNC fraud. So losing, so done...

[Beacool]

72. Puerto Rico is Clinton country.

It's like me complaining that if there had been more voting places in Oregon, for example, Hillary would have won. Nyet, never, jamais, it wasn't going to happen. Hillary was always going to win big in PR, regardless of the amount of voting locations that were open.

[passiveporcupine]

75. I agree, and I'm not upset about it for the outcome of this race,

but for what it did to the people of Puerto Rico. No one should have to stand in line for hours to vote. We did it in Arizona too. Not cool.

And there was absolutely no reason for either candidate to try to eliminate poll places...it was not a decision made by the democratic party, and they've admitted that. It was a decision made by the election committee...but they need to fix that problem for the future.

The only thing I'm concerned with was the prison not letting Sander's people in to observe the votes there. I know it wouldn't have made a difference in the vote totals, but the system still needs to be fair so it doesn't look like impropriety or tampering or whatever.

I"m not complaining about anything but the nasty threads here that are accusing Bernie of being responsible for all those polls closing and causing the backlog in voting. That is totally against everything he believes in.

[Beacool]

76. Oh, I agree.

I have no real clue why so many places were closed, other than what that party official said this afternoon. The nasty threads were due to that official's statement.

[passiveporcupine]

80. Until there is some kind of proof

coming from the election committee, I don't have any reason to believe anything coming from the Democratic National Party in PR. Any more than I trust anything coming from the DNC here. I saw what Debbie tried to do to Sanders after Nevada, and that was not cool.

Oh, btw, now there is evidence it didn't happen, from Bernie's campaign e-mail.

[passiveporcupine]

70. No it didn't hurt her

She won against Obama in Puerto Rico by a landslide, and she was going to do that again this time. The turnout never affected that.

[Beacool]

73. Then why all the complaining about the voting locations?????

It was a given that she was going to do well in PR. Mind you, I feel for people that had to wait for hours to vote. My only point is that the number of voting locations would have never made a difference in the final outcome, as Hillary would have still won.

[pnwmom]

16. The Puerto Rico elections people have sharply responded to those claims,

but I don't expect the Bernie camp to read it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141476600

[MADem]

47. The Sanders poll workers were certified FIRST.

They just couldn't muster enough of them.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282285-puerto-rico-long-lines-polling-stations

The commonwealth initially had 1,510 polling locations. But it announced last month that the number of polling locations would be cut to 455 for the Sunday primary.
Robert Prats, president of the Democratic Party on the island, said the 455 locations are four times more than the number of polling locations open in the Republican primary in March.

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders were up in arms over the cuts, with supporters tweeting about the change. A "Sanders for President" reddit page also called the reduction "about as bad as Arizona" and dozens of Sanders supporters voiced concerns about the cuts on the page.

But the local party told MSNBC that the Sanders campaign had requested fewer stations.

Good grief, you need to keep up. There were PLENTY of problems--and they were all the fault of SANDERS' inability to gather supporters who were willing to do the work in PR:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/dem-primaries/282237-puerto-rico-democratic-party-denies-wrongdoing-in-primary

Puerto Rico Dems 'appalled' by accusations from Sanders camp

The head of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico slammed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign on Saturday for accusing it of unfairly denying poll workers access to prisons to help inmates vote.

"I am appalled at the remarks from the spokesperson of the Bernie Sanders Campaign in Puerto Rico, Ms. Betsy Franceschini," local Democratic Party president Roberto Prats said in a statement.
Franceschini had accused party officials in Puerto Rico of withholding certifications from Sanders officials, initially preventing them from organizing voters in prisons.

"The claim that the Democratic Party is delaying the certification of the Sanders' poll workers is preposterous. The first complete set of pollworkers for tomorrow's primary we have certified were all from the Sanders Campaign."

Prats also said certifying poll workers is out of the hands of the party and that the Sanders campaign did not allow much time before it began accusing the party of fraud.

"Inmate voting is handled not by the Democratic Party but by the Commonwealth's Absentee and Advance Vote Administrative Board," Prats said. "I have been told that the Sanders campaign submitted their prison pollworker list at 6:10 pm on the evening prior to inmate voting and began complaining early in the following morning that the Board had not completed their pollworker's certification. But in the end, despite the late submittal, the Sanders campaign had representatives at the prison voting places."

He also accused the Sanders campaign of stealing two boxes of ballots that had been cast by prisoners before delivering them to an election office.

Sanders and his crew have jumped the shark. What an ignominious ending.

[passiveporcupine]

60. This much is true

didn't have enough volunteers to monitor the hand count of the paper ballots

But it leaves off the part he actually complained about. "In the prisons' where they would not let his people into to observe and check the process. But it wasn't a lack of volunteers, it was a lack of access.

[Android3.14]

4. Latest talking point hits the waves

What's the actual source (not the network)?

[LuvLoogie]

42. Bernie's theatricks are so worn out.

"Hey Bernie. There's someone at the door."

"Who is it?"

"The something Revolution...?"

"Oh! Hey! Tell them I'll be right there!"

"They say they're in a hurry! They have tickets to ..what?... Weekend with the Vampire!"

"Tell them to wait up!...

...(crap!)"

[Plucketeer]

5. OMG!

The END of reason as we know it! Or did that happen in Nevada? Or Colorado?

And most CERTAINLY, this directive came STRAIGHT from Bernie himself!

[left-of-center2012]

6. Keep that Bernie hate coming

[Beacool]

8. No one's hating.

Just stating what was being reported in PR.

[pnwmom]

12. Bernie's campaign has been loudly complaining about the reduction in polling places

that THEY helped engineer.

Reporting on that is hate?

[hrmjustin]

14. Reporting news is bernie hate?

[RandySF]

28. It's not true?

[nenagh]

78. Exactly what I am thinking...

& it's quite counterproductive to their overall goal.

[Fuddnik]

9. MSHRC

Another good reason I cut the cable.

Why pay for horse shit?

[MattP]

10. So claim it's Hillary fraud and when the truth comes out

Cry about the source and call it hatefull

[Gore1FL]

13. You forgot the link

]

[SunSeeker]

17. Wow. Could you imagine the outcry if Hillary's campaign did this?

[Fast Walker 52]

18. I call bullshit

[hrmjustin]

22. Why?

[Fast Walker 52]

24. it's a second hand report by a member of the DNC

it's also unlikely the Sanders campaign has the power to reduce the number of polling stations.

Also, it goes against what the Sanders campaign stand for, and this article claims the opposite:

http://heavy.com/news/2016/06/puerto-rico-primary-election-fraud-voter-suppression-polling-places-workers-certified-bernie-sanders/

[hrmjustin]

25. They were not claiming Sanders did it but requested it.

It will be interesting to see if the request was made in writing.

[MADem]

48. You believe propaganda outlet "Heavy dot com" but not The Hill or MSNBC or CNN?

Ooooooh kaaaaaaay......

[litlbilly]

23. well then, M$NBC, wow it must be true. :)

[Doctor Jack]

26. Everyone get under the bus

There must be a line 100 miles long of people that need to go under that bus

[Eric J in MN]

27. Yesterday, gov't said it was austerity.

Now blaming Bernie Sanders.

https://twitter.com/djjohnso/status/739620975281606656

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/05/puerto-rico-democratic-primary-debt-crisis

[Gman]

30. Not enough people want Sanders to be the nominee

When do they get that through their thick effing skulls?

[Stevepol]

31. Let's loook at this thread.

First the source: MSNBC
Second: no member of the Sanders campaign group is quoted as saying they asked that the number of polling places be reduced, a statement that flies in the face of common sense, and I feel sure NEVER HAPPENED. Unless, read the next
Third: The Sanders campaign has complained vociferously as I understand that the people they submitted as poll volunteers in plenty of time for approval were not approved while all of HRC's were approved promptly. Perhaps, in other words, one of the Sanders people might have said something like this to Ms Ortiz: If you won't approve our poll volunteers we won't have enough poll volunteers.
Fourth: Ask yourself, why in God's name would Bernie ask that the number of polling places be reduced? His only hope all along has been that a lot of people can get to the polls, ESPECIALLY THE NEW YOUNG VOTERS.

This whole posting makes no sense at all.

[pnwmom]

34. If they were afraid of fraud and didn't have enough volunteer poll watchers,

it would make sense that they would call for fewer polling places.

[passiveporcupine]

51. Exactly

[MADem]

52. He asked for the reduction in polling places because he didn't have enough volunteers.

You need a volunteer at every location to monitor the vote count, and he was unable to muster enough of them to cover all the places.

Here: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282285-puerto-rico-long-lines-polling-stations

[JimDandy]

79. No, Sanders did not ASK for the reduction. That is a lie which his campaign strongly refutes.

Hillary certainly couldn't muster enough poll watchers. A corrupt PR Dem Party official, who is a big Clinton supporter, sent out a desperate tweet just before election day begging Clinton supporters to be poll watchers.

[wisteria]

33. Always a conspiracy tin foil hat complaint against Sander's.

Well, what a mess he has created.

[Autumn]

35. BULLSHIT. That's a fucking lie Sanders did not ask for a reduction of the number of polling places.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/05/puerto-rico-democratic-primary-debt-crisis

But party leaders in the US territory insist the decision to reduce polling stations to 432 was a simple matter of resources, based on the island electoral commission’s inability to fund and handle the extra workload of simultaneous local elections at so many sites.

[Gothmog]

37. From my twitter feed

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/739610752470921216

Per @tonydokoupil, Puerto Rico's Democratic Party is blaming Sanders's campaign for long lines & confusion today:

[Stevepol]

39. Puerto Rico's Democratic Party is of course absolutely neutral and does not favor HRC

When it says "Puerto Rico's Democratic Party" you can rest assured that, like all the other DNC affiliated party structures, it works in behalf of HRC. And why not? As HRC has said, Bernie is not a "real Democratic" anyway, so why do him any favors, like for instance equal treatment?

[Doctor Jack]

40. It must be exhausting be so paranoid

[Stevepol]

45. Maybe you missed the following video.

[Doctor Jack]

46. A. No I didn't

B. I don't give a shit about what some random guy on youtube has to say
C. It was already confirmed that this was Sanders fault, not Clintons
D. I'm done dealing with this shit for the night. Time to watch Game of Thrones

[ThinkCritically]

59. Wasn't confirmed.

They got this info from a voter standing in line waiting to vote. You take that persons word but not the dude in the video. Suspicious.

[dchill]

83. Confirmed by your a**.

Congratulations. Everyone is grateful for your output.

[bananas]

86. Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.

11:37 PM
Automated Message
AUTOMATED MESSAGE: Results of your Jury Service
Mail Message
On Mon Jun 6, 2016, 02:24 AM an alert was sent on the following post:

Confirmed by your a**.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1477865

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

This is in no way a part of a productive political discussion

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Jun 6, 2016, 02:37 AM, and the Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Alerter, you apparently don't understand what's not allowed here.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Although more scatological than intellectual it appears the original poster brought up excrement in the first place, and the response was therefore suitable and not offensive.


Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Being Crude, rude and ridiculing to another DUer is wrong and against TOS. This is a personal attack. Covering it with a** makes it no less off an attack. Clean it up folks.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Grow some skin.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: It's the truth.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[misterhighwasted]

50. LOL..

[demmiblue]

41. Why haven't the hosts locked this? It does not meet the SoP for Latest Breaking News.

[Historic NY]

53. SURE IT DOES IT EXPLAINS WHAT HAPPENED ...

and its still coming in from multiple sources from the island. BS people screwed themselves by overplaying their hand.

[demmiblue]

56. Woah... chill.

Have you read the SoP for LBN? Here it is:

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.

It belongs in GDP.

[cstanleytech]

62. Did you report it? They cant lock if its not flagged even then it takes time as they still need to

review it.

[demmiblue]

63. Yes, two hours ago.

The only alerts I usually make are SoP alerts.

I can't remember the last time I made a CS alert.

[cstanleytech]

64. 2 hours? Meh i have seen it take up to 6 at times, they might be busy or not enough on to

reach a decision.

[demmiblue]

65. Meh, six of them have been active on DU since I alerted.

I think I will probably refrain from alerting anymore.

[left-of-center2012]

55. A tweet blaming Bernie is your msource?

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/739610752470921216

[Vogon_Glory]

57. El Bern Fue Quemado en Puerto Rico n/t

[William769]

58. Kick & highly Recommended!

[Historic NY]

61. MSNBC News

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/breaking_sanders_campaign_requested_reduction_inbreaking_sanders_campaign_requested_reduction_in_number_of_polling_places_in_puerto_rico_per_msnbc_number_of_polling_places_in_puerto_rico_per_msnbc

[TriplD]

66. There is no MSNBC link at your link

Thanks for wasting my time.

[bjo59]

77. And this has been debunked as an outright lie by the Sanders Campaign.

Was it Goebbels who opined that repeating a big lie often enough ensures that it will become the truth in the (weak) mind of the masses? Disseminating lies is what our corporate media does best. It's up to us to ensure that our minds aren't weak enough to fall for it.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

81. why hasn't this thread been locked?

[glinda]

82. Funny how lies can easily spread through the internet....