“Voter Integrity should matter to everyone, and a failed or flawed contest undermines the legitimacy of our democracy. As a volunteer on this project and former campaign political data scientist, I am leveraging my skills to bring further transparency and accountability to our electoral process by rigorously modeling and evaluating publicly available election results,” Sandoval, a Trump appointee, said in a series of text messages with CNN.
“The results of our findings should be fascinating to everyone, Republican or Democrat.”
Multiple federal officials are working in the Voter Integrity Fund, according to Braynard, which is based out of his apartment in northern Virginia.
“This is neither illegal, unprecedented, or you can make the argument but I would also say it’s clearly (ethical),” Braynard said.
Still, the officials are on a potentially slippery slope.
“All it would take is a slip of a few words,” Nick Schwellenbach, a senior investigator at the nonprofit watchdog group Project on Government Oversight and an Obama-era spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel told The Washington Post. “Even if they stay on the right side of the law, they could be treading in dangerous territory.”
For his part, Sandoval, the federal chief information security officer, said he has no concerns about any potential violations.
“I’m volunteering as a data scientist, while on leave, to evaluate the data after Election Day and sharing the results for public scrutiny,” Sandoval told CNN.
Source : CNN