EXCLUSIVE Possible Russian trolls try to register for Texas Democratic convention

[DonViejo]

Source: NBC News




MAR 15 2018, 8:58 AM ET

by WILLIAM M. ARKIN and KEVIN MONAHAN

Next Saturday, March 24, hundreds of Texas Democratic Party activists will gather at the Austin Hyatt Regency to nominate candidates for political office in Travis County, a kick-off event leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.

But some people who tried to register will not be attending, among them Candida McGruder. Gustavo Chubb. Geraldo Tinsley. Vincent Amundson. Roxie Male.

That's because these five individuals and 43 others who signed up to attend don't appear to be Travis County residents, or Texans, or even Americans. They might not even be real people. They may be pranksters — or they may be Russian trolls, and their appearance in Texas could represent the first public example of foreign probing of the 2018 elections.

Five senior intelligence officers, two current and three former, say the case of the Texas 48 looks like Russian meddling. And they tell NBC News that despite the clumsiness of the failed registrations, the Texas case fits a pattern of Russian behavior seen in its covert operations.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/possible-russian-trolls-try-register-texas-democratic-convention-n856801

[pangaia]

1. "...........The Russian goal is to stir up suspicion and chaos in the American political system."

"............The Russian goal is to stir up suspicion and chaos in the American political system. Second, they say, obvious and even seemingly incompetent activity could serve as a shield hiding more sophisticated and undetected covert activities.

Said Maxey, who discovered the Texas 48, "If things like this appear to be happening in small county registration systems in Texas, what could that mean for other parts of the country?"

NBC News repeatedly asked the Department of Homeland Security, which has responsibility for protecting state and local elections, both as a domestic intelligence agency and under their January 2017 designation as part of the "critical infrastructure," for comment on the Texas activity. The department did not respond.

SNIP

"This may seem like a small scale incident," a former senior FBI official tells NBC News. "In fact, it's indicative of a much larger problem. How can the federal government be part of the solution if they're not even following the facts that some state and local officials are discovering? It's unacceptable."

[Demsrule86]

2. Trump is colluding with Russian right now...God knows how much intelligence he has shared due

to blackmail.

[pangaia]

4. Not colluding.. conspiring....

[IronLionZion]

8. Trump will cut their funding and outsource the work to Russian FSB

to find efficiencies

[PatrickforO]

3. Well, yes, when someone's email address ends in .ru

that is a pretty big clue they aren't from Texas.

[FakeNoose]

9. They can disguise that rather easily

Anybody can get a gmail address, or Yahoo, whatever. As long as they know enough english, because the signup isn't in Russian.

[ffr]

5. The waves of attacks on our nation go unheeded by conservatives in control of U.S. policy.

Vote them out.

or

Lock them up!

[getagrip_already]

6. so how many GOP activists from TX have actually registered to attend?

Probably more than a few. Probably a lot more.

Ratfucking conventions and primaries is a tactic from page 1 of their historical dirty tricks.

[catrose]

12. If you voted Democratic in the recent primaries,

you received an invitation to the convention. So that's one way. I don't know of other ways to get invited/registered, but I'm not deep in the party's confidence.

[getagrip_already]

13. hmm, I've voted in every d primary since 1976.....

And I've NEVER been invited to a convention. Plus, I've donated to dccc, the dnc, and several other d based fund raisers.

Not so much as a robo call.

Should I feel slighted?

[catrose]

14. Maybe so.

I worked this election on the Dem side, and in training we were told to give out invitations to all Democratic voters. On the actual day, the Republicans weren't doing that for their convention, and only one Republican voter asked for convention info (in 12 #(*)@#$!!!! hours) , but around 10 in the morning someone from the elections office came by and said to be sure that we gave out invitations to everyone. So I continued to do so. You need the beige card and the blue info page to get in. Maybe if you called, they could look you up in the voter database and register you.

BTW, this is in Texas. Specifically, Austin environs.

[getagrip_already]

15. yeah, I'm not from TX......

I'm a masshole. We don't have any trouble filling our conventions with hard core activists, so they aren't just giving out invitations. They probably turn away more people every cycle than they can accept.

You generally need to be well connected to attend party events. Even more tightly coupled to end up as a delegate.

But I can see it as a promotional activity in a state like TX where they are trying to grow the activist base.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

[Chipper Chat]

10. I can imagine what Molly Ivens would say about this.

Miss her.

[SunSeeker]

11. K & R for exposure.