Benedictine Sisters in Erie push back against quickly disproven GOP voter fraud claims
By Sean Kitchen
The Benedictine Sisters of Erie were compelled to issue a press release pushing back against voter fraud claims levied by a right-wing activist. PA Chase posted a false claim on X that was quickly disproven.
The PA Chase, a conservative door knocking organization, falsely accused a Benedictine Sisters convent in Erie of fraudulent voter claims.
The incident started when Cliff Maloney, the founder of PA Chase, posted false claims on X that they found an address linked to the Benedictine Sisters in Erie that had 53 registered voters but no residents living there.
The false claim went viral after Maloney posted in front of his 60,000 followers.
“We want to call Cliff Maloney to account for his blatantly false post that accuses our sisters of fraud. We do live at Mount Saint Benedict Monastery and a simple web search would alert him to our active presence in a number of ministries in Erie. We also want to alert those who subscribe to X and other social media platforms to be vigilant and seek additional information before accepting these posts as truth,” Sister Stephanie Schmidt, prioress said in a statement.
“A free republic depends on free and fair elections. It depends equally on a discerning and conscientious citizenry who do not unquestioningly accept the word of anyone who has a social media platform.”
The Benedictine Sisters of Erie issued a press release dispelling the false claims on Wednesday after being alerted to the social media post.
PA Chase is operated by the right-wing Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, which lists Maloney as their CEO, and aims to knock on 500,000 doors and increase the Republican share of mail-in ballots from 20% to 33% in the upcoming election.
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