Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is suspended from accessing the voter database.
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NGP VAN describes itself on its website as “the leading technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns”. While the Sanders campaign can still talk to voters, it has no way of actually keeping track of their identity and whether they support the Vermont senator’s candidacy.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Democratic National Committee suspended Sen.
Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said that a low-level staffer had viewed the information, and that one staffer had been fired over the incident.
In a statement provided to Mic, Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs placed the blame on NGP VAN, accusing it of repeated “serious errors” and said that any impropriety from Sanders’ side would not be tolerated.
The DNC database keeps the voter information gathered by different campaigns separated by a firewall.
Still, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has raised more money than the Sanders campaign $77.5 million to $41.5 million, the Washington Post reports. According to the AP, a vendor used a software patch Wednesday that rendered the database’s firewalls ineffective, allowing candidates to access one another’s data.
The Washington Post first reported the breach and the DNC decision late Thursday night.
Clinton, Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley face off Saturday in the party’s third presidential debate, which is to be held in the early voting state of New Hampshire. “Not having access means there’s nowhere to store your information”.
When asked if Sanders will call for DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down, the aide said, what is announced at the presser will be “driven by what happens between now and then in our conversations with the DNC”.
The Bernie Sanders campaign fired a staffer who accessed campaign data for rival Hillary Clinton, ABC News reports.
His campaign told NBC none of the accessed data had been downloaded or printed. Spokesman Luis Miranda said, “We want to get this resolved as quickly as possible”.
The episode has dealt Sanders a strategic blow by cutting his campaign off from the national party’s voter data – a blow that could become devastating if it lasts.
Trevelyan went on to explain that a Wednesday release of VAN code “contained a bug” and “for a brief window, the voter data that is always searchable across campaigns in VoteBuilder included client scores it should not have, on a specific part of the VAN system”. According to the Sanders’ team, one staffer has been fired.
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The DNC has asked the firm to conduct an analysis to identify users who accessed other campaigns’ data and the actions they took, and to conduct a full audit of its system as well and to begin a review process with all the campaigns and staffers use it.
