Officials in U. S. say ‘ nyet’ to Russian bid to monitor election

State Department calls request a ‘ PR stunt’

In what U. S. officials regarded as an attempt to embarrass the United States over Donald Trump’s claims of a rigged presidential election, Russia sought to send monitors to U. S. polling stations for the vote Nov. 8, Russian media revealed Thursday.

The bid was sharply rebuffed by the State Department, and one state election official threatened criminal action if Russian monitors showed up, according to the state- controlled Izvestia daily and broadcaster RT.

State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner called the Russian effort a “PR stunt.”

A spokeswoman for Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, who received a request to allow Russian monitors, called it a “propaganda ploy.”

“We’ve allowed observers from overseas in the past from other countries, never from Russia,” Meg Casper said.

She said the FBI and Department of Homeland Security “told us not to do this.”

Trump, who is behind in most polls, has complained for weeks about potential election fraud. In Wednesday night’s debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Republican refused to say whether he would abide by the Election Day results.

Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, have become prominent issues in the U. S. campaign and were mentioned during Wednesday’s debate for allegedly interfering in the election. U. S. intelligence officials suspect Russia is behind a series of computer hacks that leaked embarrassing emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign staffers.

Trump was skeptical about Russia’s role in the leaks and deflected Clinton’s charge that he is an admirer of Putin and overlooks the Russian leader’s alleged meddling in the election and other anti- U. S. positions.

The U. S. often sends monitors to observe elections in countries with a history of voter fraud.

Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos wrote in a Sept. 28 letter to Alexander Zakharov, Russia’s consul general in Houston, that “only persons authorized by law may be inside of a polling location during voting. All other persons are not authorized and would be committing a Class C misdemeanor crime by entering.”