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NEWS |

Democratic U.S. presidential can-

didate Bernie Sanders on Friday

warned Russia to stay out of

American elections after a news-

paper reported U.S. officials had

told him Moscow was trying to

help his campaign.

Mr. Sanders said in a state-

ment he did not care who Rus-

sian President Vladimir Putin

wanted to be U.S. President.

“My message to Putin is clear:

stay out of American elections,

and as president I will make sure

that you do,” said Mr. Sanders, a

senator from Vermont.

The Washington Post, citing

unidentified people familiar

with the matter, said U.S. officials

had told Mr. Sanders about the

Russian effort and had also in-

formed Republican President

Donald Trump and other U.S.

lawmakers.

It was not clear what form the

Russian assistance had taken,

the paper added.

In Bakersfield, Calif., Mr. Sand-

ers told reporters “the intelli-

gence community is telling us

they are interfering in this cam-

paign, right now, in 2020.”

A congressional source con-

firmed that intelligence officials

have told lawmakers that Russia

appears to be engaging in disin-

formation and propaganda cam-

paigns to boost the 2020 cam-

paigns of both Mr. Sanders and

Mr. Trump.

The source, however, cau-

tioned that the findings are very

tentative.

The Kremlin earlier on Friday

denied Russia was interfering in

the 2020 U.S. presidential cam-

paign to boost Mr. Trump’s re-

election chances after reports

that U.S. intelligence officials had

warned Congress about the elec-

tion threat.

U.S. intelligence officials told

members of the House of Repre-

sentatives Intelligence Commit-

tee in a classified briefing last

week that Russia was again in-

terfering in U.S. politics ahead of

November’s election, as it did in

2016, a person familiar with the

discussion said on Thursday.

REUTERS

sanderstells

putintostop

interfering

withu.s.

elections

SUSANHEAVEYMOSCOW

SIMONLEWISWASHINGTON

Nevada’s Democratic Party is scrambling
to shore up the system that will be used to
calculate the results of Saturday’s caucus-
es, hoping to avoid the chaos that plagued
the race in Iowa and cast a shadow over the
Democratic presidential nomination race.
The party has rebuilt its entire caucus
process in the weeks since the Feb. 3 Iowa
caucuses. Nevada Democrats initially
planned to use two apps designed by Shad-
ow Inc., the same company responsible for
software glitches that caused lengthy de-
lays in reporting the Iowa results.
The debacle in Iowa prompted the resig-
nation of Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy
Price and raised questions about the state’s
first-in-the-nation status in picking nomi-
nees.
The Democratic National Committee
finished a partial recanvass of the Iowa re-
sults earlier this week, erasing the initial
lead held by Pete Buttigeig, former mayor
of South Bend, Ind., and placing him in a
virtual tie with Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders.
Both campaigns have requested re-
counts from several precincts.
In Nevada, the party released a plan to
record results using a series of secure on-
line forms and spreadsheets provided by
Alphabet Inc.’s Google and running on
iPads.
Party volunteers will also verify the
numbers by hand and through paper back-
ups before submitting the final results to
secure phone lines and in photos sent by
text message to party headquarters.
Nevada officials have been keen to por-
tray their caucus system as far more orga-
nized than the process in Iowa. In the days
ahead of Saturday’s caucuses, the party
said that it held 55 online and in-person
training sessions to introduce more than
3,000 volunteers to the new system.
Organizers also recruited “tech volun-
teers” to help caucus staff troubleshoot
any technology problems and said they
consulted with security experts from Goo-
gle and the Department of Homeland Se-
curity.
But the reassurance hasn’t entirely
quelled fears among the presidential cam-
paigns. In Iowa, a similar plan to report re-
sults through a phone hotline ran into
problems when the phone number was
leaked online, resulting in a flood of prank

phone calls that jammed the lines.

Former vice-president Joe Biden also

raised concerns about the state party’s

plans to incorporate the results of early

voting into the final results by including

precinct-level numbers into iPads handed

out at caucus sites.

“It is not that I think anybody is trying to

do anything wrong, it is just really a com-

plicated system,” he told CNN on Thursday.

Nearly 75,000 people took part in early

voting this week, using a ranked ballot that

listed at least three preferred candidates.

The early voting system was originally de-

signed to use software developed by Shad-

ow, Inc. But the party shifted to paper bal-

lots in the wake of the fiasco in Iowa.

The early voting process added com-

plexity to an already complicated caucus

system, which requires candidates to re-

ceive at least 15 per cent of total votes in or-

der to remain viable to go into a second

round of voting.

Results from that round determine how

many delegates each candidate receives to

county conventions in April.

The party did not respond to a request

for comment on Friday, but released a me-

mo saying that it still expected to release

final results through a public website on

Saturday. The stakes will be high in Satur-

day’s caucuses, not just for the presidential

candidates, but for future Democratic

races. Former Senate majority leader Harry

Reid told reporters in Las Vegas recently

that if the process went smoothly, it could

pave the way for Nevada to leapfrog Iowa

and become the first state to caucus.

If it goes poorly, however, it could spell

the end of the caucus system, where voters

gather in churches, schools and communi-

ty centres. Instead, it likely would be re-

placed by a primary, which closely resem-

bles a traditional election.

“If there’s another Iowa-style glitch, the

caucuses are in trouble across the board,”

said Robert Lang, a professor of public pol-

icy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

NevadaDemocratstryingtosecure

caucusprocesstoavoidIowarepeat

Partyhasrevampedits

entiresystemusingforms,

spreadsheetsprovidedby

Googleafterthedebacle

earlierthismonth

TAMSINMCMAHON
U.S.CORRESPONDENT
LASVEGAS

Officialstabulatetheresultsofan

initialheadcountatacaucussite

inDesMoines,Iowa,onFeb.3.

TheDemocraticNational

Committeefinishedapartial

recanvassoftheIowaresults

earlierthisweek,placingPete

Buttigeiginavirtualtiewith

BernieSanders.

JORDANGALE/THENEWYORKTIMES

Nevadaofficialshavebeen

keentoportraytheircaucus

systemasfarmore

organizedthantheprocess

inIowa.Inthedaysaheadof

Saturday’scaucuses,the

partysaidthatitheld

onlineandin-persontraining

sessionstointroducemore

than3,000volunteerstothe

newsystem.