AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The campaigns of White House hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama yesterday traded accusations of breaking vote rules as tensions rose in the hotly contested race.
The latest barbs came just days after the two Democrats announced a truce over a racial flare-up and displayed the mounting pressure on both sides ahead of the next state primary contest in South Carolina Saturday.
Mr. Obama’s campaign accused Mrs. Clinton’s staffers of urging polls to close early in Nevada’s nominating caucuses, which Mrs. Clinton won Saturday with 51 percent of the vote to Mr. Obama’s 45 percent.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign denied the accusations and shot back, accusing Mr. Obama’s campaign of being “desperate” over its loss and committing its own “widespread intimidation and strongarm tactics” aimed at “bullying” voters.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton, in a conference call with reporters, said Clinton supporters had broken Nevada state caucus rules.
“Despite clear rules and timelines laid out by the Nevada Democratic Party that caucus doors should remain open and voter registration should continue until noon, the Clinton campaign encouraged their operatives to close the caucus doors at 11:30 am, a half-hour before that deadline,” he said. “This caused confusion and led to people leaving the caucuses before having the chance to participate.”
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign director for Nevada, Robby Mook, dismissed the charge as “a false and desperate claim by a campaign that is trying to rewrite what happened yesterday.”
“I think the real issue is that there were some ambiguities in the state party documents … it is never clear as to when doors are actually closed.”
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