These Pennsylvania Election Officials Are Pro-Trump Conspiracists
Alyssa Fusaro believed that two Latina women working in the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, elections office the day after the November 2022 election were throwing away ballots. She went to a nearby desk, made a phone call, and allegedly called one of the women a racial slur.
The women “were incredibly distraught and were sobbing,” said one of 13 witnesses who spoke to county lawyers about the incident, which was reported by the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader and other local press. Several witnesses said Fusaro was being aggressive with election staff over a shortage of paper for ballots.
Fusaro, an appointed member of the county election board, denies she used the racial slur. She told county attorneys that she “was extremely kind” to the two women. Brian Thornton, the vice chair of the Luzerne County Council, dismissed the claims made by witnesses in the report, saying no “evidence surfaced which could collaborate [sic] the allegations.”
After Fusaro was briefly considered for removal by the Luzerne County Council, the measure was tabled thanks to Thornton and the council’s other Republican members. Like Fusaro, six of the seven Republicans on the council are election deniers. Fusaro remains on the election board as Nov. 5 approaches, and Pennsylvania looks to be the most important battleground state in the country. Fusaro did not respond to a request for comment, nor did county attorneys.
Fusaro twice refused to certify the results of the 2022 election, questioning whether it had been “free and fair.” On Facebook, Fusaro has claimed that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats, and she praised rules passed by the Georgia State Election board that gave Fusaro’s Peach State counterparts more authority to refuse to certify election results.
She is not an anomaly. Fusaro is one of at least 33 county officials throughout Pennsylvania who have expressed belief in Donald Trump’s nonstop election lies or supported policies rooted in election denialism, according to a review of social media posts and other public sources conducted by the Center for Media and Democracy and American Doom. At least 23 of these officials are county election board members. The remaining 10 sit on county councils or commissions, which have some authority over election matters.
These officials’ duties include certifying results and deciding whether to count mail-in ballots that could contain errors — ballots that are expected to be overwhelmingly submitted by Democratic voters. Many of the officials frequently post election misinformation on social media.
Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, executive director of the progressive nonprofit Action Together NEPA, says Luzerne County has “more than its share of election deniers.”
“Far too many of them are in positions of power and authority, and pass along election lies and conspiracies as fact to their constituents,” Hoffman-Mirilovich says in a statement, noting the sheer number of election deniers serving as officials in the county. “Republican members of the county council, including the chair and vice chair, the elected county controller, and at least one member of the appointed election board are to blame for these lies not just being spread in Luzerne County by bad actors.”
In 2021, Fusaro stood in a parking lot outside a Pennsylvania Trump rally and sang a song she had written to the tune of AC/DC’s “T.N.T.”
“Trump! Trump! Trump!” she belted in place of the iconic “Oi! Oi! Oi!”
“See him ride out of the White House, fighting Pelosi,” Fusaro sang. “Out to drain the musty swamp, if you know what I mean.”
Fusaro, who plays harmonica in a band called No Vacancy, is among dozens of election-denying election officials in Pennsylvania. Some have refused to certify results; some have fought to ban the use of ballot drop boxes based on conspiratorial beliefs about “ballot harvesting”; and some have refused to give voters the opportunity to fix routine errors on their mail-in ballots.
Following Trump’s 2020 loss, Robert Rossman, an election board member in Potter County, Pennsylvania, encouraged people to head to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day that Trump supporters led a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“We have a bus from Coudersport to D.C. Jan 6th, leaving at 3am from [Coudersport], leaving D.C. 330pm,” Rossman wrote on Facebook just days before the rally that led to the riot at the Capitol. “Please send me names, phone, emails if interested in standing up for our USA.” Rossman went on to say the United States had “officially become a banana republic” after Trump’s 34-count felony conviction for tax and business fraud in New York.
“So where do we go from here? We vote to save our Republic and let our nominee do what he must to Save America,” Rossman wrote the day of Trump’s conviction.
Harry Haas, a Luzerne County council member, wrote on Facebook 2020 that there were “many arguments to suggest this election was stolen.” Serving alongside Haas on the council is Kevin Lescavage, who has shared conspiracies about Jan. 6 and baselessly claimed that the right-wing attack was actually carried out by “Antifa thugs.” He called critical race theory “racist propaganda” being used to “indoctrinate our school children,” and posted an anti-Muslim meme targeting progressive Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
“I remember how you and your Democratic Party used the media to spread lie after lie about my President Trump,” read a post shared by Larry Padora, a member of the Schuylkill County Commission. “I remember how you and your Democratic Party stole the election from my President Trump.”
In May 2022, Wyoming County election board member Rick Wilbur posted a meme that has become popular among election deniers, reimagining a scene from The Sixth Sense. “I see dead people.” “What are the dead people doing?” “They’re voting by mail.”
Pennsylvania’s election deniers are not just sharing their beliefs on social media — some have tried to obstruct the certification of elections. In November 2022, Fusaro voted against certification, although the Luzerne County Board of Elections eventually did certify the results. That same month, Northampton County election board member Scott Hough voted against certification after being encouraged to do so by the chair of the county GOP. Last November, election board members in Lancaster County initially refused to certify results over issues with mail-in ballots. Eventually, a federal judge ruled that some of the ballots must be counted and the board certified results.
At a gathering of swing-state election officials in September in Michigan held by the bipartisan election integrity group Keep Our Republic, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, said his office is prepared to immediately file writs of mandamus against any county that refused to certify results in November. Theoretically, this would force counties to certify results under court order.
Schmidt said at the gathering that he would take counties that refuse to certify results to court “forthwith.” But even if counties don’t outright shut down certification because their election boards don’t have a majority of deniers like Fusaro, they could still file what are essentially protest votes against certification, as more than a dozen officials have since 2020, Rolling Stone and American Doom reported in March.
Pennsylvania’s election-denying election officials have long held substantial power over the counting of mail-in ballots, a highly contentious issue that has been the subject of numerous court battles since 2020.
In the past, at least 29 Pennsylvania counties have not given notice to voters so they can fix errors, or “cure” their mail-in ballots, a process known as “notice-and-cure,” Spotlight PA found. Others have allowed ballot-curing. Washington County, where the election denier Nick Sherman sits on the election board, was reprimanded by a state court for not giving voters the opportunity to cure their ballots during an April election. The county has since unanimously approved a rule that requires voters to be notified of problems with their ballots. (In June 2022 Sherman wrote an op-ed for a local newspaper titled “Eliminate unsecured voting drop boxes.”)
“The idea that you have to date your ballot when you return it is really superfluous,” Bob Harvie, vice chair of the Berks County Board of Commissioners, said during a recent panel of swing-state election officials. “We know when the ballot was mailed to you, literally. We know when it was returned to us. So if your date is wrong, if you put your birthdate by accident, it shouldn’t really disqualify you as a voter.”
The Republican National Committee sued Schmidt in an attempt to prohibit voters from curing their mail-in ballots. The state Supreme Court ruled last week that election officials must allow voters to cure their ballots, or vote with provisional ballots if mistakes were made. The RNC is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide on the matter.
Salewa Ogunmefun, executive director of PA Voice, a progressive voting rights organization, says that Pennsylvania voters should be allowed to fix their mail-in ballots.
“Notice-and-cure is a pro-voter practice that’s been around for decades, stopping thousands from needlessly being disenfranchised,” Ogunmefun says in a statement. “If you make a mistake, you should have the opportunity to fix it, and that begins with knowing in the first place.”
Making matters even more complicated, mail-in ballots can’t be counted until Election Day, potentially setting up another episode like 2020’s “red mirage,” in which Trump led thanks to in-person voting before heavily-Democrat mail-in ballots began to be counted. That will likely occur again, thanks to Trump’s push to have Pennsylvania Republicans stymie efforts to allow officials to start processing mail-in ballots before Election Day, as Rolling Stone previously reported.
The counting and adjudication of mail-in ballots — not to mention certification of results — carries great importance in Luzerne County. A former Democratic stronghold, Luzerne has been trending Republican since Trump won there in 2016. President Joe Biden regained some ground in Luzerne, not far from his childhood home in Scranton, but still lost to Trump by 14 points in 2020.
In recent years, Luzerne has undergone a drastic rightward shift. After years of Democratic control, the county council now counts eight Republicans and just four Democrats.
County council meetings have been inundated with speakers railing against ballot drop boxes and espousing election conspiracies. Recently, the council voted against adopting an “election worker protection” resolution brought by Democrats that would have increased criminal penalties for anyone who threatens election workers. It approved a watered-down version of the resolution at its latest meeting, while passing an “election safety” resolution that discourages the use of drop boxes.
“Our election workers should not bear the burden of proving that baseless accusations meant to sow doubt in our elections process are untrue,” says Hoffman-Mirilovich, of Action Together NEPA. “We need more honest and transparent leadership in this county who are willing to come right out and say that lies are lies, and to support the hardworking public servants who make our elections possible.”
At the same meeting, a man named “Joe” asked council members if the county vets election workers for their political beliefs. When he was told by the county manager that doing so was “illegal,” Joe ignored the comment.
“Well, you should,” he said.
This story is being published in partnership with American Doom, a newsletter that focuses on right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy.
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