Report: Bernie Sanders Campaign Improperly Accessed Confidential Clinton Voter Data
The Democratic National Committee has accused Bernie Sanders’ campaign of illicitly accessing confidential voter information acquired by the Clinton campaign, The Washington Post reported late Thursday night. Sanders’ campaign manager, for his part, hasn’t denied the allegations outright—but he is chalking the whole thing up to a computer glitch.
In response, the DNC has cut off Sanders’ campaign from accessing its master list of Democratic voters, which it maintains while allowing other campaigns to add their own, self-gathered (and firewall-protected) data to the list. The protections in place are supposed to keep other campaigns from using rivals’ information. But apparently, while a software patch was being installed on Wednesday, a “window into proprietary information from other campaigns” was accidentally opened.
Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator’s campaign manager, acknowledged that a low-level staffer had viewed the information but blamed a software vendor hired by the DNC for a glitch that allowed access. Weaver said one Sanders staffer was fired over the incident.
... Weaver said the Sanders campaign never downloaded or printed any of the data, meaning it is no longer in possession of any proprietary information.
Now, the DNC is refusing to allow Sanders’ campaign access back into its data stores until it provides evidence that all of Clinton’s data has been destroyed. Meaning that, at least for now, Sander’s organizers are going to have perform their efforts relatively blindly, which could be a major setback for the already lagging senator.
Thus far, according to the Post, Hillary Clinton’s camp has declined to comment on the issue. And while the whole situation seems to be an unfortunate accident—if not a slight overreaction on the DNC’s part—it’s about damn time something interesting (and non-email related) happened with a democrat.
