This presidential election might be in the final stretch, but there's still no shortage of weirdness.
The state of Texas denied on Friday a request to have Russian officials monitor polling stations on Election Day, according to a letter first obtained by NBC News.
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The Texas secretary of state's office reported receiving a letter from Russia's consulate general in Houston asking if it could send a representative to one of the voting precincts in order to learn about the "US experience in organization of voting process."
Naturally, Carlos Cascos, Texas secretary of state, shot down the request.
"Only persons authorized by law may be inside of a polling location during voting," he said. "All other persons are not authorized and would be committing a class C Misdemeanor crime by entering."
Alexander Zakharov, Russia's consul general in Houston, send similar requests to Oklahoma and Louisiana, according to NBC.
Over the course of this campaign season, Russia has played a major role in the discussion. While Republican presidential nominee claims the election system is "rigged" against him, the U.S. government has indicated Russia might be behind cyberattacks which have led to the publication of thousands of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee — a move many experts believe is intended to influence the outcome of the election.
Russia, for its part, has denied being involved in the hacks.
There is a formal process in place, should a foreign government be interested in observing the U.S. election. However, according to State Department spokesman Mark Toner, states have the right to approve or deny requests to do so.
"Any suggestion that we rejected Russia's proposal to observe our elections is false. Individual parties — foreign governments, NGOs, etc. — are welcome to apply to state governments to observe our elections," he told NBC.
Given Russia has not engaged in any effort to observe elections internationally, the country's request to do so at the state level is "nothing more than a PR stunt," Toner said.
