Two Clinton campaign volunteers visited the Pittsburgh Sanders office

We’ve heard the stories about morally questionable tactics used by political supporters, but on Tuesday, April 19th, two of Hillary’s fellows attended canvasser training at the Bernie Sanders office in Pittsburgh.

Last week, a meme was posted to the Pitt Students for Bernie Sanders 2016 Facebook page claiming that two Hillary supporters, and Pitt students, infiltrated Bernie Sander’s office under false pretenses.

For those who don’t know, canvassing is an important part of any political campaign, because talking to people one on one really has the biggest effect during the campaigning process. When you sign up for a volunteering shift to canvass, you get a list of undecided voters in your party to go talk to. Volunteers literally go door-to-door and make the case for why that person should vote for a specific campaign.

For three high-ranking volunteers to attempt to sign up for canvassing shifts at their oppositions headquarters (especially without revealing who they are) could be catastrophic, because that gives those people access to names of undecided voters (that their actual campaign might not know about). If they are sent under the guise of being Bernie supports and potentially talk down about him, or talk up Hillary, the Bernie campaign couldn’t know differently. They wouldn’t get the fair chance to make their case, because they’re under the impression that someone else already spoke to them on Bernie’s behalf.

So here is what allegedly happened: On April 19th, there was an event at CCAC called “Diversityland II”.  At this event, Bernie supporters debated with one of these Hillary volunteers.  After the event, this volunteer in addition to two others, went back to the Clinton office, then made their way to the East Liberty Bernie Sanders field office.

Here they allegedly acted as if they wanted to campaign for Sanders, even checking off days they would be able to volunteer. After this, they were taken back behind a desk for canvassing training. Supposedly here they “inquired about areas being targeted, upcoming events, and generally how things have been going to this point”.  Before more information could be given, the Sanders supporters from the earlier event arrived back in the office and recognized the three from the “Diversityland II” event. After confronting them, the three Hillary supporters allegedly “turned ghost white, admitted to their positions, and left the office without any data”.

As a Bernie volunteer said to us, “canvassing data is critical to the success of the Bernie Sanders campaign. In the hands of a typical volunteer without access to the DNC Votebuilder VAN no damage can be done. However, in the hands of the Clinton campaign staff who has access to this system they are able to identify our targeted area, the statistics of those we are trying to reach, and other vital info on the list.”