Puerto Rico Dems ‘appalled’ by accusations from Sanders camp

The head of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico slammed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign on Saturday for accusing it of unfairly denying poll workers access to prisons to help inmates vote.

{mosads}”I am appalled at the remarks from the spokesperson of the Bernie Sanders Campaign in Puerto Rico, Ms. Betsy Franceschini,” local Democratic Party president Roberto Prats said in a statement.

Franceschini had accused party officials in Puerto Rico of withholding certifications from Sanders officials, initially preventing them from organizing voters in prisons.

“The claim that the Democratic Party is delaying the certification of the Sanders’ poll workers is preposterous. The first complete set of pollworkers for tomorrow’s primary we have certified were all from the Sanders Campaign.”

Prats also said certifying poll workers is out of the hands of the party and that the Sanders campaign did not allow much time before it began accusing the party of fraud.

“Inmate voting is handled not by the Democratic Party but by the Commonwealth’s Absentee and Advance Vote Administrative Board,” Prats said. “I have been told that the Sanders campaign submitted their prison pollworker list at 6:10 pm on the evening prior to inmate voting and began complaining early in the following morning that the Board had not completed their pollworker’s certification. But in the end, despite the late submittal, the Sanders campaign had representatives at the prison voting places.”

He also accused the Sanders campaign of stealing two boxes of ballots that had been cast by prisoners before delivering them to an election office.