Russia denied access to U.S. polls

Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma reject requests.

Oklahoma and at least two other states said Friday that they had denied Russian officials permission to be observers at polling stations during the election a request a U.S. State Department spokesman dismissed as “nothing more than a PR stunt.”

The Oklahoma secretary of state’s office said it received a letter in August from Russia’s consulate general in Houston seeking to have one of its officers present at a voting precinct to study the “US experience in organization of voting process.”

The office denied the request, noting Oklahoma law prohibits anyone except election officials and voters from being present while voting is taking place.

Election officials in Louisiana and Texas said they denied similar requests.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has faced criticism for suggesting the election might be “rigged,” and the U.S. earlier this month accused Russia of coordinating the theft and disclosure of emails from the Democratic National Committee and other institutions to influence the outcome of the election.

Thousands of hacked emails from accounts of individuals within Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign have been posted on the website of the WikiLeaks organization. Russian officials have denied involvement in the cyberattacks.

While there is a formal process for foreign governments to observe U.S. elections, individual states maintain the authority to approve or deny those requests, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

“Any suggestion that we rejected Russia’s proposal to observe our elections is false,” Toner said in a statement.

Russia hasn’t participated in an international mission to observe elections, so its effort to do so on the state level represents “nothing more than a PR stunt,” Toner said.