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Accusations of voter fraud and “election stealing” have been everywhere in the Trump era, and the 2024 election is shaping up to be no different if comments from right-wing voters and candidates are any indication.
But a story out of the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania shows just how ridiculous this uproar really is. It’s a situation so utterly beyond parody that if you pitched it in a writer’s room, you would immediately be fired for being too on the nose.
A Pennsylvania canvasser accused nuns of voter fraud.
Cliff Maloney is a Pennsylvania political strategist who founded a canvassing group, The Pennsylvania Chase, and an initiative called “Operation Win At The Door,” which organizes teams of “ballot chasers” to knock on voters’ doors and get out the vote, in order to “crush commies to make liberty win,” as he puts it in his bio on X.
It’s the kind of boots-on-the-ground, grassroots work that is vital to any election, and it’s an area in which Donald Trump’s campaign has somewhat infamously lagged on in 2024 — particularly since recently handing over much of its swing-state field operation to Elon Musk’s America PAC, which is now accused of faking much of their canvassing in key states.
So perhaps Trump supporters’ hackles are up even more this time around. It certainly seems that way when it comes to Maloney’s Pennsylvania Chase staffers, at least. When one of them encountered an Erie, PA, address on their route with dozens of registered voters, they quickly jumped to conclusions that made very little sense.
The canvasser discovered 53 voters registered at the same address and assumed fraud was occurring.
To be clear, voter fraud is exceedingly rare in the United States, and of the handful charged or convicted of it in 2020 or 2022, the overwhelming majority were Republicans fraudulently voting for Republican candidates.
Nevertheless, accusations about left-wing voter fraud continue to be top of mind for conservatives because they are the cornerstone of Donald Trump’s electoral strategy. So when Maloney’s staffer encountered the confusing situation in Erie, fraud was the first conclusion.
Never mind that the address was the Mount Saint Benedictine Monastery, home of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, which easily explains why 53 voters were all registered at one address.
And never mind that a simple Google search would have directed Maloney’s staffer to the convent’s website full of photos and names of the 67 nuns who live there — names that match the very voter rolls Maloney’s staffer used.
Instead, Maloney’s staff went inside one of the complex’s buildings and asked a staffer if it was a “retirement home.” There, he was told nobody lived there, which seemed to confirm his suspicions. It’s been theorized by some, notably investigative journalist Jacqueline Sweet, that the staffer may have gone to a guesthouse at the facility and was told no one lives there because it’s just a place for visitors to stay a night or two.
Whatever the case, when Sweet contacted the nunnery herself to confirm whether the sisters on the voter rolls do indeed live at the monastery, she was pithily told by Sister Anne McCarthy, “That’s where I woke up this morning!” McCarthy confirmed that approximately 60 sisters are currently living there.
Regardless, Maloney insists that something nefarious is up and has implied he intends to take some kind of legal action, writing in one of his tweets that “our attorney’s (sic) are reviewing” the situation at the nunnery and he and his organization “will not let the Dems count on illegal votes.” But he may have a very real fight on his hands.
The Benedictine Sisters released a statement saying they plan to take legal action against Maloney for ‘defamation.’
Maloney may want to moderate his bluster a bit because the Benedictine Sisters of Erie have made it clear they have no intention of letting his accusations stand.
In a press releasethe sisterhood wrote they “take no issue with knocking on doors to increase citizen participation in elections,” but that Maloney “claiming false information as true in an effort to discredit differing views or affiliations” was unacceptable.
They then pointedly detailed their wish to “call Cliff Maloney to account for his blatantly false post that accuses our sisters of fraud” before stating what many others have said: a simple Google search rather than jumping to conclusions would have saved everyone this ridiculous (albeit hilarious) uproar.
“‘A free republic depends on free and fair elections,'” Prioress Sister Stephanie Schmidt went on to say in the release. “‘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 sisters then referred to Maloney’s accusations themselves as “fraud” and stated they “want to be on public record” as having pushed back on him in case the Pennsylvania elections results are contested, as Donald Trump and other Republicans have implied is their plan.
The sisters then issued a pointed warning to Maloney and his organization: “We are also pursuing legal counsel regarding this public defamation.” Pretty wild to end up in court because you’re so convinced of your baseless voter fraud suspicions you publicly harassed a bunch of nuns.
Perhaps he can join the esteemed company of Donald Trump’s confidantes Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow weirdo Mike Lindell, who are both facing multi-million dollar judgments from defamation cases resulting from their baseless accusations of voter fraud.
In any case, Maloney remains unbowed and his suspicions unshaken. In a follow-up tweet, he vowed to “continue to go public with this information” until “we have proof” that the Benedictine Sisters of Erie “are legal voters.” (They already have that in the form of the very voter rolls they used to plan their canvassing visit to the monastery in the first place, but whatever.)
And he also has a message for all the “unhinged commies” doubting him as this frankly hilarious farce has gone viral: “POUND SAND!” Message received, Mr. Maloney, and best of luck in all your very strange endeavors to expose the nefarious graft and fraud of America’s nuns!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.
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