Bernie Sanders Regains Access to His Voter Files, But Still Plans To Sue the DNC
The skirmish between the Sanders and Clinton campaigns this week continues, with Sen. Bernie Sanders regaining access to his own voter files, after the Democratic National Convention had cut him off.
Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the Sanders campaign had improperly downloaded voter files belonging to the Hillary Clinton campaign, taking advantage of a glitch in the internal firewall at the DNC’s data vendor. Shortly after, the DNC cut off Sanders’ access to his own voter data in retribution, a move that prompted a lawsuit and allegations that the DNC was purposefully sandbagging Sanders.
According to Politico, on Saturday the DNC “capitulated” and agreed to restore access to the campaign. In a statement, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said:
“The Sanders campaign has now complied with the DNC’s request to provide the information that we have requested of them. Based on this information, we are restoring the Sanders campaign’s access to the voter file, but will continue to investigate to ensure that the data that was inappropriately accessed has been deleted and is no longer in possession of the Sanders campaign. The Sanders campaign has agreed to fully cooperate with the continuing DNC investigation of this breach.”
Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said that he was “extremely pleased that the DNC has reversed its outrageous decision to take Sen. Sanders’ data.”
Among the data reportedly retrieved by Sanders staffers were lists of critical Clinton supporters supporters in 10 states, as well as lists of people Clinton feared would side with Sanders instead.
But the battle isn’t over yet. According to The Huffington Post, the Sanders campaign does not plan to back down on its lawsuit, and is demanding an independent audit of the DNC and the data vendor involved in the case, NGP VAN.
