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Reporter 'not allowed' to talk to voters at Biden event

Joe Vardon, a reporter with the Columbus Dispatch, says campaign aides stopped him from speaking to voters at a rally featuring Vice President Joe Biden in Canton, Ohio, today.

"Reporters NOT ALLOWED to talk to voters at Biden/Canton event," he tweeted. "Saddled up to two 'Scotts' — both white, mid-50s — campaign tapped me on shoulder, said I wasn't allowed."

Vardon told POLITICO the aides simply said, "I'm sorry, reporters aren't allowed out here" and did not provide further explanation. Obama campaign headqaurters then reached out, Vardon said, to say that he could speak to the voters, but by that time the rally had started.

This is not the first time a reporter has complained about restricted access to voters at an Obama campaign event. Back in August, Dave Davies, a senior reporter for Philadelphia's WHYY radio station and an NPR contributor, reported that campaign staffers prevented him from interviewing voters outside a rally featuring Michelle Obama.

(Also on POLITICO: The latest polls)

Vardon noted that he was allowed to speak to voters at multiple events for Rep. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate, last week.

The Obama/Biden campaign has yet to respond to a request for comment regarding the complaint.

UPDATE (12:03 p.m.): Amy Dudley, a spokeswoman for Vice President Biden, emails:

This was a miscommunication on the ground. Any reporter is entirely free to speak with event attendees.

And Vardon tweets:

[For what it's worth], Chicago and Biden's traveling press aides have said I can talk with whomever, ignore local staff.