“A lot of evidence that we are here:” Pennsylvania nuns defend themselves against allegations of voter fraud on social media

ERIE – A group of nuns say a conservative political organizer published “false and misleading information” about them, claiming no one lived in their Erie home and vaguely threatening to consult his lawyers about it.

The Benedictine Sisters of Erie issued a press release this week in response to a post by Cliff Maloney, CEO of the conservative political group Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, saying someone he works with knocked on the door of their monastery, “and NOBODY lives there.”

According to the religious group, this is certainly the case.

“We want to hold Cliff Maloney accountable for his blatantly false post accusing our sisters of cheating,” they said. “We 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.”

PA Chase, a group founded by Maloney as part of the Citizens Alliance, pays people to knock on doors to increase Republican turnout and use of mail-in ballots. Messages seeking comment were left for Maloney and Citizens Alliance Pennsylvania on Friday.

The nuns say they, too, have consulted with lawyers and want to “make it public knowledge that they denounced this fraud so that our integrity will not be called into question when the results of next month's election are challenged in Pennsylvania.”

The names of 53 nuns have been posted online, but the nuns say 55 of them currently live there and that three of the 53 in the video with the names that Maloney set to X no longer live there.

Maloney later posted on

Sister Linda Romey, who coordinates the nuns' communications and development efforts, said Friday, “I mean, there's nothing to analyze.” And as news crews have filmed her in recent days, she said, “There's a lot of evidence that that we are here.”

Romey said the nuns felt Maloney violated their privacy.

“They immediately post something without a simple question being asked,” Romey said.

The moment the nuns were in the political spotlight prompted a call from Al Schmidt, who, as secretary of state, is Pennsylvania's highest-ranking election official. Schmidt posted on Thursday