How I Helped Rig The Democratic Primary For Hillary

I’ve been resisting this for a long time, but my conscience will not allow me to remain silent any longer. This is my true confession.

Much has been made of how Hillary Clinton’s team in collusion with the DNC rigged the 2016 Democratic Primary elections around the country against Bernie Sanders. Many concerns were raised by Sanders supporters during the primary season, which were summarily ridiculed as conspiracy theories by the mainstream media and spokespeople for the Clinton campaign. However, the record now shows that the DNC were indeed colluding with the Clinton campaign who had control over financials, hiring and communications, but we are told we need to get over it and move on and unite to fight the rise of the extreme right in this country.

The problem is that until the issues that were exposed during the 2016 Democratic Party primaries are fully acknowledged and addressed to prevent any repeat, there is little hope of progressives getting “over it”. The DNC and the party establishment effectively broke trust with their base and have shown no signs of atonement, but continue with their belligerent posturing that we need to work towards unconditional unity. Regrettably, I personally have more faith in the Republican party than I do of the Democratic Party establishment providing an honest framework, which is a sad indictment of the state of affairs within the “party of the people”.

As many revelations have confirmed our worse fears, there is one story that remains untold and that is how I helped rig it for Hillary. Yes, it was me and many others that worked together to ensure the rigging of the primary process.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have no inside intelligence but offer this as pure speculation on my part based on the information reported in many news outlets.

During the primary elections, there were a lot of people protesting in various states and claiming that they had been purged from the voter rolls or had their party affiliation changed which prohibited them from voting in the Democratic Primary. Examples include; New York, Nevada, California. Many Sanders supporters registered as Democratic Party voters in closed primary states in order to participate in the election in their state. In some states it was found that voter rolls used in polling stations were from the 2012 election thereby eliminating the many that had registered to cast their ballot for Sanders. However, it was further revealed that people that had been registered Democrats for decades were also purged. So the outdated voter rolls don’t provide an answer to what really happened and how Sanders supporters were potentially targeted.

In October 2017, it was confirmed that between 120,000 and 200,000 (depending on which news source you read) were purged from the voter rolls in Brooklyn, New York, which happened to be the birthplace of Sanders and the national headquarters of the Clinton campaign. New York was a key battleground in the Sanders versus Clinton primary election cycle. So much so, that the DNC prevented any televised debates prior to October 9, 2015, which was the deadline to switch party affiliation in New York, while the Republican Party had already held two televised debates beginning in August 2015. The first Democratic Party debate was held on October 13, 2015 after the New York deadline had passed. Many states allowed voters to register or switch party affiliation within a few weeks of the state primary, New York’s six-month deadline was unique but pre-dated the 2016 race.

Why were exit polls off by double digits in the Democratic Party races when Republican results were within the acceptable margin of error of plus or minor four percent? Also, how come those discrepancies always favored Hillary Clinton?

Flashback to December 18, 2015, before any votes had been cast — yes, two years ago!

The Washington Post broke the news that staffers on the Sanders campaign had accessed Clinton data stored on the NGP VAN system. The DNC responded by removing Sanders campaign access to the NGP VAN. The system was a crucial organizing tool of both campaigns and one month before the Iowa caucus, the Sanders campaign had lost access to a system that they had paid for. The Sanders campaign fired their data strategist Josh Uretsky, who acknowledged responsibility for the data breach. They lobbied to have their access restored, both publicly and privately. The DNC held firm and the mainstream media carried that narrative that the Sanders campaign were caught infiltrating Clinton data, implying some nefarious motive to sabotage the Clinton campaign. When the Sanders campaign threatened legal action, the DNC quickly relented and had their access restored. There the story died, or did it?

Stuart Trevelyn the President and CEO of NGP VAN (a privately owned company) is a veteran of the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign and was a member of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs under Bill Clinton. A long standing Clinton insider.

So what happened? Why did Josh Uretsky access the Clinton data when he knew that his actions were recorded and traceable? Why would he compromise the Sanders campaign?

As the story unfolded it was revealed that the Sanders people had identified a firewall issue a few months prior and reported it to NGP VAN and the DNC but no action was taken. Remember that the DNC was the client of NGP VAN in this arrangement — not the Sanders campaign, they were a client of the DNC for access to the database. In other words, the DNC controlled the relationship with NPG VAN, and as Donna Brazile reveals in her book, the Clinton campaign controlled the DNC.

Josh Uretsky (the Sanders staffer) explained his actions, in an on-air phone interview with Steve Kornacki (MSNBC 12/18/2015):

“We knew that what we were doing was trackable and we were trying to create a clear record of a problem before reporting it, so we could make sure we were not crying wolf, so that we understood the extent of the exposure of our data to any other political entity.

We had to assume that our data was equally exposed and updated reports prove, uh, show that it was. We just wanted to document and understand the scope of the problem. So that we could report it accurately.

We could see that there was a problem with security, so we wanted to create a record on their system without taking any data for our purposes.

“Frankly, I did it with the full knowledge that they could see what I was doing.”

Having accessed the Clinton data for 40 minutes, Uretsky goes on to confirm:

“The data was all within their [NPG VAN] custodianship.” And “We did not export any records or voter file data.”

The problems that Uretsky exposed were buried in a sea of finger pointing by the DNC and Clinton campaign, which is hardly a surprise.

So what did I do to help rig the primary process for Hillary?

For those of you that participated in phone banking efforts during the 2016 primary process, you know that the mission was to call up registered voters and document their support in the NGP VAN database: Strong Sanders, Possible Sanders, Undecided, Strong Clinton, etc.

Although unsubstantiated, it is very clear that I along with many others helped identify Sanders supporters as we enthusiastically updated the NGP VAN records while phone banking for Bernie and documented potential Sanders voters in every state. So, yes, I believe that I may have inadvertently helped rig the primary election for Hillary Clinton.

Whether or not, this hypothesis is true, the fact remains that the root of the story that broke in December 2015, remains unaddressed and mired in a sea of grandstanding, deflection and obfuscation, much as the rest of the issues that were raised in the 2016 Democratic Party primary. So until the DNC and the Party establishment face up to the stain of 2016 they will continue to lose the confidence, support and more importantly the votes of the base of their party. Rich donors can’t bail them out of this mess, it’s on them to fix it or face further defeats in upcoming elections. The Clinton campaign proved that money can’t buy an election by outspending Donald Trump two to one.

Is this a conspiracy theory? Essentially it is, but there is enough uncertainty to make me sick to my stomach at the thought that I may have helped rig the primaries for the benefit of Hillary Clinton and the ultimate Trump victory.

The DNC Unity and Reform Commission does not begin to address the problems exposed in 2016, and to address their disastrous election results over the past 10 years. There are plenty of platitudes forthcoming in a sad attempt to woo supporters back to the party, but until they have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and fully expose and address the concerns of the progressive base, they are consigning themselves to the dustbin of history.

I for one, will not surrender my agency and provide unconditional support for the Democratic Party as I have done for decades, 2016 ended all that.

Keir Hardie is a Britain born naturalized American based in New Jersey involved in supporting various online progressive media voices. Like Keir Hardie News on Facebook for regular updates.