User:Selvydra/sandbox/Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016

2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries (draft)
On July 22, WikiLeaks published the Democratic National Committee email leak, in which DNC operatives seemed to deride Bernie Sanders' campaign and discuss ways to advance Clinton's nomination. While the leak was part of an alleged operation by the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton, it cast doubt on the DNC's neutrality and, according to Sanders operatives and multiple media commentators, portrayed an organization invested in promoting the Clinton candidacy and sabotaging that of Bernie Sanders. The debate schedule had already been criticized as far back as 2015, including by aspiring candidate Martin O'Malley, as biased in Clinton's favor. Democratic Party Chairwoman Donna Brazile, who succeeded Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair after the first batch of leaks, was shown in the emails leaking primary debate questions to the Clinton campaign before the debates were held, although a senior aide to Sanders said that Brazile was also in touch with and provided guidance to the Sanders campaign. Brazile later went on to write a book about the primary and what she called 'unethical' behavior by the Clinton campaign and the DNC during it. Other media commentators have argued that, while the DNC's actions could have affected the race, those actions and their internal preference for Clinton were unlikely to have swayed the outcome. The leak followed allegations of voter disenfranchisement that had earlier surfaced in multiple states.

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July 2016: National Convention and email leaks
On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released online tens of thousands of messages hacked from the e-mail accounts of seven key DNC staff. Some e-mails showed two DNC staffers discussing the possibility that Sanders' possible atheism might harm him in a general election with religious voters. Others showed a few staffers had expressed personal preferences that Clinton should become the nominee, suggesting that the party's leadership had worked to undermine Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. However, the leaks did not reveal any tangible actions of rigging. Then-DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the accusations lies. The furor raised over this matter escalated to Wasserman Schultz's resignation ahead of the convention, and that of Marshals, Dacey, and Communications Director Luis Miranda afterwards. Following Wasserman Schultz's resignation, then-DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile took over as interim DNC chairwoman for the convention and remained so until February 2017. *moved 2 sentences about Brazile in 2017 to Controversy section*

*moved paragraph on post-election investigation on Russian interference to Controversy section*

The 2016 Democratic National Convention was held from July 25–28 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, with some events at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The delegates selected the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees and wrote the party platform. A simple majority of 2,383 delegates was needed to win the presidential nomination. While most of the delegates were bound on the first ballot according to the results of the primaries, a progressively larger number of pledged delegates would have become unbound if the nomination required more than one ballot. Clinton was nominated on the first ballot by acclamation, although all states were allowed to announce how they would have voted under a typical roll call vote. On July 12, 2016, the Vermont delegates had supported Clinton in Sanders' request; asking for party unity, he dropped out on July 26, 2016 and announced he would return to the Senate as an independent.

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(In rough chronological order of events, while containing topics in their paragraphs. The 3rd paragraph, about Russia, is unedited:)

Election irregularities
During the primary, election irregularities were covered by media in multiple states. In Iowa, the Des Moines Register penned an editorial opinion where they called the caucuses a "debacle," citing a "refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal," and how "the results were too close not to do a complete audit." At the Nevada state convention following the state's caucuses, Sanders-supporting delegates protested the last-minute rule changes called over a voice vote by Nevada Democratic Party chairwoman Roberta Lange, and their denied delegate statuses. (58 Sanders delegates and 8 Clinton delegates were not seated; Clinton won the state delegate majority, 1,693 to 1,662.) In the closely fought race in Illinois, the Chicago Election Board approved vote tallies and adjourned their meeting in two minutes without allowing for objections to the tallies from people present. In Arizona, there were reports of voter suppression, including up to 5-hour lines to vote, on the day of election. The election day was seen as the most opportune moment for Sanders to pick up votes, after early-vote demographics seemed promising for Clinton.

In New York, over 200,000 voters were purged from rolls in a move later deemed illegal. Independent voters (No Party Preference, NPP) in the California primaries were required to request special "crossover ballots" in several large counties in order to vote for President. The instructions given to NPP voters over this were deemed "inconsistent" and "sometimes bad." As with most primaries in the race, polling showed Clinton performing better among registered Democrats and Sanders having a 40-point edge among NPP voters. A 96-page report released on July 25 by Election Justice USA, a voter rights organization, described some of the irregularities during the primary as voter suppression, registration tampering and illegal purges.

In November 2017, Brazile said in her book and related interviews that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had colluded 'unethically' by giving the Clinton campaign control over the DNC's personnel and press releases before the primary in return for funding, in addition to using the DNC and state committees to funnel campaign-limitation-exceeding donations to her campaign. Internal memos later surfaced, claiming that these measures were not meant to affect the nominating process despite their timing. Brazile later clarified that she claimed the process was 'unethical', but 'not a criminal act'.