Nuns withdraw after GOP political activist questions their registration to vote in Pennsylvania

Erie, Pennsylvania. — A group of Pennsylvania nuns say a conservative political organizer published “false and misleading information” about them, claiming their Erie home was unoccupied and threatening to consult with his lawyers about them.

The Benedictine Sisters of Erie issued a press release this week in response to Cliff Maloney’s post saying someone from his staff knocked on the door of their convent “and NO ONE lives there.”

According to the religious group, of course they do.

“We want to hold Cliff Maloney accountable for his blatantly false post accusing our sisters of fraud,” they said. “We do live at St Benedict’s Mount Monastery and a simple internet search will alert him to our active presence in a number of ministries in Ayr.”

Maloney’s group, PA Chase, pays people to knock on doors to boost Republican turnout and use mail-in ballots. Messages seeking comment were left Friday for Maloney and for Citizens Alliance Pennsylvania, a Lemoine-based conservative group affiliated with PA Chase.

The nuns say they have also consulted with lawyers and want “it to be made public that they called this fraud so that if the results of next month’s election in Pennsylvania are contested, our integrity will not be called into question.”

The names of the 53 nuns were posted online, but the nuns say 55 of them currently live there, and that three of the 53 in the video with the names Maloney put on the X no longer live there.

Maloney later posted on X that if the nuns are legal voters, “then I encourage them to exercise their right to vote,” adding that “at this time, our legal team continues to analyze the situation.”

Sister Linda Romy, who coordinates the nuns’ outreach and development work, said Friday, “I mean, there’s nothing to analyze.” And considering that they were filmed in recent days, she said that “there is a lot of evidence that we are here. »

Romy said the nuns believe Maloney invaded their privacy.

“They immediately post something without a simple question,” Romy said.

The moment the nuns found themselves in the political spotlight was prompted by a phone call from Al Schmidt, who, as secretary of state, is Pennsylvania’s top election official. Schmidt posted on X on Thursday that he had spoken with the prioress of the convent “to thank her for countering misinformation about the election.”