BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – The Consulate General of the Russian Federation has asked a number of southern states, including Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, if they could monitor Election Day activities at various sites.
Alexander Zakharov of the Russian Federation requested that the Louisiana Secretary of State allow an officer to monitor voting sites in order to study “the U.S. experience in organization of voting process during the United States Presidential Elections,” according to NOLA.com.
Secretary Schedler denied the request but not for the reason that some would have imagined.
The Louisiana Secretary of State told Zakharov he was denying the request was because of the impact of massive floods in the region which affected over 60,000 homeowners.
“I have approximately one-third of my employees personally affected, we are short-staffed and working day and night to prepare for this election along with the changes of precinct locations and other related processes,” Schedler said to Kakharov. “Had this flood event not occurred, we certainly would have been open to such a visit, but I cannot meet such a request with the situation I have currently in front of me.”
Schedler said Zakharov could ask again in the 2020 Election, as Louisiana law permits foreign monitors at its voting sites.
Texas and Oklahoma also denied the request.
In recent months, Hillary Clinton has routinely blamed Russia for hacks into the Democratic National Committee’s email server, as well as John Podesta’s, despite Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks claiming general credit.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has used the WikiLeaks scandal to his advantage, often reading off emails between top officials within Clinton’s campaign during rallies across the country.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.