Lack of Volunteers Led Sanders Campaign to Request Fewer Polling Stations

On Sunday afternoon, as lines in Puerto Rico stretched to 90 minutes or even two hours in some areas, the Bernie Sanders campaign had already accused the Democratic Party of voter suppression. On social media, comments and accusations of voter fraud floated by.

More long lines for Puerto Rico Dem primary because of inexcusable cutting of precincts by local Dems. pic.twitter.com/ck3YoifzcM â€” Armando (@armandodkos) June 5, 2016

Some claims of voter suppression were propelled by several articles, including a Saturday article at The Hill: “Sanders campaign accuses Puerto Rico Dem officials of fraud.”

That article details the Sanders campaign’s claim that officials from the Puerto Rico Democratic Party did not certify Sanders’ officials who were to help prison inmates vote.

â€œOur Bernie Sanders officials were never certified. We had 40 officials we submitted in time for the prisons. Not one of them was certified, while all of [Clinton’s]Â went in. Attorney Manny SuÃ¡rez had to go in order for us to be let in. This is a great fraud,â€ Sanders’ campaign official BetsyÂ Franceschini said.

Only 3% of the vote is in. Thanks for staying in line and voting for @BernieSanders | #PRprimary Puerto Rico primary pic.twitter.com/5H9avqNGBF â€” Terrence McNulty (@TerrenceMcNulty) June 5, 2016

Meanwhile, MSNBC National Reporter Tony Dokoupil announced on-air that the reason the polling stations had been cut so dramatically, by two-thirds, from 1510 to 432, was because the Bernie Sanders campaign did not have enough volunteers to monitor polling stations.

Dem Party of PR tells @MSNBC that the Sanders campaign is the one that requested a cut in number of polling stations today. â€” tonydokoupil (@tonydokoupil) June 5, 2016

The Sanders campaignÂ and the Puerto Rico Democratic Party settled on the 432 number as a result,Â Dokoupil reports, adding this quote fromÂ Liza Ortiz, National Committeewoman of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico:

Per @tonydokoupil, Puerto Rico’s Democratic Party is blaming Sanders’s campaign for long lines & confusion today: pic.twitter.com/fesxBnfkJ7 â€” Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 6, 2016

So, instead of supposed voters suppression or voter fraud, the long lines were at least in part a result of a poor ground game by the Sanders campaign in Puerto Rico, per MSNBC’s report.

It should also be noted that the unincorporated U.S. territory is in debt by about $70 billion, forcing austerity measures that include slashing the amount of money for primaries. The GOP primary in March was worse. Polling stations cut from 1500 to 110.

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Image by Armando via TwitterÂ