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2024 election updates: Philly DA wants more security for Musk giveaway hearing
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2024 election updates: Philly DA wants more security for Musk giveaway hearing

A nun in Pennsylvania who was swept up in a misinformation campaign boosted by a Republican activist said she’s praying to be left alone.

Cliff Maloney, who runs a door-knocking organization, claimed in an X post one of his staff visited an address in Erie, Pennsylvania, last week and was told none of the 53 registered voters who used that address actually lived there.

Sister Stephanie Schmidt of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pa., talks with Jay O’Brien of ABC News, Oct. 30, 2024.

ABC News

However, the address is home to 55 resident nuns of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie. All but two of the nuns are registered to vote.

“It’s invaded our home, if you want to describe it that way,” Sister Stephanie Schmidt, the prioress, told ABC News.

Maloney also posted the names and political affiliations of each nun on his X account, something Schmidt said made her empathize with countless other Americans caught up in misinformation on social media.

“It was very concerning, because this was a blatant lie, putting out to the public information that was just wrong,” she said.

“This campaign is filled with so much deception, so much misinformation, and we have to wake people up, which is another reason why we’re going public with this, to alert people not to believe everything you read,” Schmidt added.

Maloney has not responded to repeated requests to answer questions from ABC News.

He later posted an update claiming his team was “analyzing” the new information about the nuns’ residence and said, “Once we have proof, we will be content.”

Schmidt says one of the things she’s praying for most is for this misinformation to leave them alone.

-ABC News’ Jay O’Brien