DNC, Sanders reach deal restoring access to voter data
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign overnight Friday night reached an agreement on voter data access, after a day of acrimony between the sides.
Even in the wake of a deal, the DNC and Sanders team have differing stories on how it was settled.
{mosads}In a statement shortly after midnight, the Sanders campaign said the DNC “capitulated and agreed to reinstate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign’s access to a critically-important voter database.”
The statement said that the campaign’s filing of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington brought about the change.
“We are extremely pleased that the DNC has reversed its outrageous decision to take Sen. Sanders’ data. The information we provided tonight is essentially the same information we already sent them by email on Thursday,” said campaign manager Jeff Weaver.
In a statement released at about the same time, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) explained the resolution differently, saying it came after the Sanders camp “complied with the DNC’s request to provide the information that we have requested of them.”
“The Sanders campaign has agreed to fully cooperate with the continuing DNC investigation of this breach,” she added.
“The fact that data was accessed inappropriately is completely unacceptable, and the DNC expects each campaign to operate with integrity going forward with respect to the voter file.”
The Sanders campaign sued the DNC Friday evening following the suspension from the DNC’s voter database after a security breach.
The suit claimed that the campaign is losing $600,000 in donations each day that it does not have access to the data, and adds that the “damage to the campaign’s political viability as a result of being unable to communicate with constituents and voters, is far more severe, and incapable of measurement.”
The standoff came in the backdrop of Saturday night’s Democratic presidential debate, where Sanders will face off against front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Clinton and Sanders have traded insults in the wake of the DNC’s initial action, with the Clinton team accusing Sanders’s campaign of malicious wrongdoing and the Sanders side saying the DNC is rigging the campaign to make it easy for Clinton to win the nomination.
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