Note: This post has been updated to include a more detailed response from McLaughlin and to note that McLaughlin is also running to be a Clinton delegate.

In advance of her campaign rally in Cohoes Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton last week received the warm embrace of the Albany County Democratic Committee’s leadership.

But party brass’ endorsement of the former senator from New York in this year’s Democratic presidential primary infuriated local supporters of Clinton’s rival, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who contend the vote was invalid because it violated party rules.

Party Chairwoman Carolyn McLaughlin forcefully disputes that and says she never intended to freeze Sanders’ supporters out of the process.

“I will not be accused of doing anything illegal, immoral to the extent that I’m trying to suppress voting,” McLaughlin said. “As I have stated 100 times, I’ve been right here all the time and nobody ever contacted me about Bernie.”

The disagreement boils down to this: All 600-some-odd members of the committee did note vote to endorse Clinton, but members of the executive committee — a 28-member panel of local party leaders from the county’s cities and towns — did during a hurried conference call on Tuesday night.

The executive committee had met the night before to endorse U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko for re-election but inadvertently neglected to vote on a presidential endorsement, according to party insiders.

That led to the last-minute executive committee conference call Tuesday night to vote on the Clinton endorsement, after the party had already posted on Facebook that phone banking and canvassing for Clinton would be coordinated out of party headquarters on Colvin Avenue starting that night.

The next day, local Democrats including McLaughlin (who is running to be a Clinton delegate) gathered downtown to endorse Clinton in absentia ahead of the April 19 primary.

Some rank-and-file Democratic committee members are angry about party leadership taking sides in a contested primary and allege the Clinton endorsement was granted in violation party rules that reserve the power to nominate candidates for office for “a majority vote of the full County Committee.”

To wit, Article VIII, Section 1 of the by-laws reads:

“Consistent with the provisions of this Article, the power to designate and nominate candidates for public office is expressly reserved for a majority vote of the full County Committee for County-wide, National or State public office or by those members of the County Committee representing election districts corresponding to such offices where applicable.”

Incidentally, the word “endorsement” does not appear anywhere in the party’s rules (which you can read here).

Albany County Legislator Andrew Joyce, who supports Sanders, called on McLaughlin to hold a full committee meeting in advance of the primary to rectify the problem. (On his own blog, Joyce calls the vote illegal.)

Those meetings require at least 10 days notice, meaning it would have to happen soon to be of any relevance before voters head to the polls.

“It’s a disservice to both Hillary and Bernie and obviously committee people in Albany County to not do this the right way,” said Joyce, who represents parts of Albany and Bethlehem. “The quote-unquote endorsement that was reached was invalid. … If the party supports Hillary Clinton, let’s do it the right way.”

McLaughlin countered that it’s standard practice and within the rules to have the executive committee make endorsement recommendations.

“The executive committee has the right to make an endorsement, the endorsement is then taken to the full committee, and then they can either accept it or reject it on May 4,” McLaughlin said, referring to the scheduled spring meeting.

But that date is two weeks after the primary, rendering the action meaningless, Sanders backers argue.

“After consulting with persons who I felt could advise me correctly,” she said, “they said that it was not an issue.”

Meghan Keegan, a committee member from Albany’s 10th Ward and a Sanders supporter, said party leadership was wrong to act without alerting rank-and-file members that a presidential endorsement was on the agenda.

“I think it’s something people should have been aware that they were considering,” Keegan said. “If it had come to a full vote, and 51 percent of the committee voted for Hillary Clinton, then that’s the way it is and you move on.”

Wading into a contested primary — and doing so in a nontransparent way — will prove “very divisive for the committee,” Keegan said.

The semantics matter, Sanders supporters argue, because the county party’s resources — raised by its political action committee — are being used to aid the Clinton campaign when the entire organization hasn’t blessed it.

But McLaughlin said she doesn’t need committee authorization to do that and would make the same offer to Sanders supporters if they asked.

“They don’t have to approve that,” McLaughlin said. “That’s my decision. They do not have to approve every move I make.”

Other Sanders supporters note the email from McLaughlin that alerted party brass to the endorsement call (sent just 36 minutes before the was scheduled to begin) did not reach all executive committee members and made clear the purpose was to “vote on the Albany County endorsement of (Hillary) Clinton for President of the United States.”

In other words, they say, the outcome was pre-ordained.

County Legislator Joe O’Brien, a member of the executive committee and a Sanders supporter, said he was among those who didn’t receive the email.

“My understanding was that there was a mix-up with the emails, but my email address hasn’t changed in three years,” said O’Brien, who represents Loudonville. “It would have been nice to participate and voice my support for Bernie.”

Nineteen executive committee members were on that call, McLaughlin said, adding that phone calls were also made and that it’s not her responsibility to ensure committee members supply her with their up-to-date email addresses.

More to the point, McLaughlin said, she had no idea who individual executive committee members supported when the email was sent out.

“I didn’t pick out people because they had a ‘B’ or an ‘H’ by their name,” she said. “I didn’t know where people stood on this.”

One executive committee member on the call was 3rd Ward Leader Ron Bailey, who says the procedural objections being raised now by Sanders supporters are too little, too late.

“They should have said something when they were on the phone then,” said Bailey, who also represents the 3rd Ward on the Albany Common Council. “I didn’t hear anybody complaining when (McLaughlin) asked about it.”

On Thursday, the party said on its website saying that it would be happy to pass along information about Sanders organizing events but “has not received any information regarding official campaign opportunities from the Bernie Sanders campaign for Albany or the Capital Region.” (His supporters, including Assemblyman Phil Steck and several county legislators, rallied in the West Capitol Park Monday afternoon and are meeting again Monday night The Egg.)

McLaughlin said it costs between $800 and $1,000 to call a full committee meeting and that it would be “logistically impossible to happen at this point” prior to April 19.

She said she hoped the hard feelings over the Clinton endorsement “has not dampened their enthusiasm for voting.”

“In the end, we’re all working for a Democratic candidate who we hope will become president of the United States,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve never set out in this job to try to offend anybody. If anything, my anthem has been to try to unify people.”

A CBS News/YouGov poll released last week had Clinton leading Sanders by 10 percentage points, while a recent Quinnipiac poll had Clinton up by 12 points.