Vice President Kamala Harris took to social media to praise the efforts of poll workers, amid the presidential primaries and just months ahead of the 2024 election, but her complimentary remarks quickly backfired.
“Our democracy could not function without nonpartisan poll workers like Vasu and Rob whom I met in Georgia. President Biden and I thank you and we support you,” she said on X Tuesday, sharing a photo of her appearing to listen to Vasu Abhiraman.
Instead of applauding a “nonpartisan” poll worker, X’s Community Notes immediately tagged the tweet with additional context that readers “might want to know,” including that Abhiraman is actually a liberal advocate who promotes the progressive movement.
“The ‘nonpartisan poll worker’ on the left is Vasu Abhiraman, a staffer at the left-wing Alliance for Justice and formerly of ACLU Georgia,” reads a notice on Harris’ tweet.
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Abhiraman’s biography on the AFJ website identifies him as “the Helen Rosenthal Senior Counsel for the Building the Bench program at Alliance for Justice.”
“In this role, he serves as a dedicated advocate for diversity and inclusion in the federal and state judiciary, working collaboratively with a coalition of organizations to identify and recruit potential candidates for the bench,” it continues.
He is also credited with training “thousands of poll workers and deputy registrars to safeguard the democratic process during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Several X users immediately took notice of the additional context.
One user described Harris’ tweet as “like a major self-own” and said it was “just sad.”
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“Kamala… it is posts like this that destroy your credibility,” the user added. “If your staff cannot vet these properly before posting, you need to fire them. We will always fact-check and investigate all claims like this.”
“Vasu and Rob are non-partisan? Can you prove that?” another added.
One user responded: “Vasu Abhiraman (left) is quite partisan, actually.”
“I really appreciate community notes!” added another.
And, “Community Notes FTW [for the win].”
On its website, the AFJ says its mission is to “build the strength of progressive movements by training and educating nonprofit organizations on advocacy, harnessing their collective power to transform our state and federal courts.”
