Elections

Sanders Staffer Fired After Improperly Accessing Clinton Voter Data [VIDEO]

Steve Guest Media Reporter
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Josh Uretsky, Bernie Sanders’ data director, was fired after he improperly accessed confidential voter demographic information that was collected by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

According to The Washington Post, Sanders’ Vermont campaign manager Jeff Weaver admitted Uretsky viewed Clinton’s data on Wednesday for about a half an hour but blamed NGP VAN, the software company who handles the data, for the glitch that allowed access.

The Democratic National Committee, which compiles the master list of voters’ past support, donations, and subscriptions then rents the information to campaigns and allows the campaigns to add their own information to the system. Firewalls are supposed to limit campaigns from viewing the information that other campaigns add to the database.

The DNC suspended the Sanders campaign’s access to the voter information until the campaign explains the improper viewing of Clinton’s data and destroys all of the Clinton data.

Weaver claimed the Sanders campaign never downloaded or printed any of the data, arguing the campaign is no longer in possession of Clinton’s data and suggesting NGP VAN is at fault for the glitch.

“Sadly, the DNC is relying on an incompetent vendor who on more than one occasion has dropped the firewall between the various Democratic candidates’ data.”

The Post reports that Sanders spokesman Michale Briggs said that in total, four campaign workers viewed Clinton’s voter data, three staffers under the direction of the data director.

CBS’s Nancy Cordes reports the Sanders campaign said, “After discussion with the DNC it became clear that one of our staffers accessed modeling data from another campaign. That behavior is unacceptable and that staffer was immediately fired.”

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