Oops! Dems Seize On GOP Lawyer's Apparent Slip On Poll Watcher Call
Source: Talking Points Memo
In legal action claiming that the Republican National Committee was illegally engaged in ballot security activities, Democrats are pointing to a conference call in which a Republican operative mentioned that certain GOP ballot security initiatives in Virginia were being handled by the RNC, before quickly walking the comment back.
"I've got the folks RNC has hired on -- um, to help them with...," Virginia Republican Party General Counsel Chris Marston allegedly said, according to a transcript of a poll worker training conference call filed in court by the Democratic National Committee Thursday. “I’m sorry. The RNC is not doing anything related to Election Day operations,” Marston went on to say with laughter, according to the transcript. The DNC, nonetheless, argued that the comment indicated "the RNC’s involvement and obfuscation."
The transcript was filed in a case regarding a consent decree the RNC agreed to in the early 1980s that prohibited it from participating in certain "ballot security" initiatives. Democrats are claiming that the RNC has violated the decree, which is set to expire in December 2017, and that it should be extended for another eight years. Republicans have maintained that have followed the consent decree, which still allows for Republican state parties (with the exception of New Jersey's) to engage in the sort of poll watching activities the RNC is barred from doing.
According to court documents filed Thursday, a Democratic operative in Virginia, Frank Anderson, signed up on the Donald Trump campaign's website to volunteer as an elections observer. Sometime after, he was contacted by email about signing up to volunteer, and was invited to attend online poll watching training, according to his affidavit. Anderson had his intern sign him up for a training session and he received a number of poll watcher information materials, as well as an invitation to a Nov. 1 training conference call, according to the documents. He said he recorded the call, and the transcript of the call was included in the DNC brief arguing that the court should find the RNC in violation of the decree.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/dems-goper-s-mention-of-rnc-in-poll-training-call-shows-they-violated-decree
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