NORWICH – Frontier Communications Internet customers have had trouble the last few weeks gaining access to Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s official campaign Web site, users and company officials confirmed Tuesday.
However, users didn’t have difficulty viewing campaign Web sites for party rival Barack Obama (D-Illinois), Republican nomination front-runner John McCain or his fading counterpart Mike Huckabee.
Local Democrat Richard Jorgensen first noticed the problem around Feb. 10, he says. Jorgensen then sent e-mails to over 60 people on his list asking if they had the same problem. The only responders without access were eight Frontier customers.
Jorgensen said he then contacted the technical department at Frontier around Valentine’s Day. He was told by technicians that they couldn’t access political Web sites. Nothing happened.
The problem continued until Tuesday, when it was brought to the attention of a Frontier spokeswoman.
Was it a conspiracy?
“No,” says Karen Miller, a spokeswoman for Frontier. Rather, it was the result of off and on technical difficulties related to new software the company recently implemented. The problem was resolved Tuesday, Miller said.
“We’ve been testing some software on our server and it appears that software has caused the problem,” said Miller. “We have removed the software and are working with the vendor to identify and resolve the problem.”
Miller, who would not name the vendor, added: “It was not limited to that one site.”
Frontier remains neutral on candidates and what political Web sites its customers can view, Miller said.
The Evening Sun checked from several Frontier customers’ computers to confirm the problem before and after it was fixed Tuesday.
Jorgensen, not arguing there was a conspiracy, is annoyed Frontier didn’t handle the issue when he called nearly two weeks ago, believing it could have an impact on Clinton’s race in areas where people use Frontier.
“The thing I’m annoyed with Frontier about was that there was no follow-up on it,” he said. “That locks out a potential candidate in this area. That’s not fair.”
Jorgensen said immediately after the primary, an Owego-based initiative took hold on the web site to gather support from rural Southern Tier and Central New Yorkers. It didn’t reach Frontier users because of the software glitch, he said.
“If it could happen here, could other people do it as well?” Jorgensen asked. “We want a level playing field.”
Clinton campaign representatives returned a call seeking comment after-hours Tuesday night, but could not be reached for comment by press time Tuesday morning.
Frontier has systems in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, News Mexico, Oregon, and Utah.