Samuel Case, FISM News

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Democratic Pennsylvania Attorney General and Governor-elect, Josh Shapiro, on Wednesday charged a former campaign consultant with “wide scale” primary election fraud in 2019, according to the AG’s office. 

Rasheen Crews, a political consultant, was charged by Shapiro’s office on “charges related to forging signatures on nomination petitions in municipal elections.”

Shapiro called the charges, “An important reminder that interfering with the integrity of our elections is a serious crime.”

BREAKING

My Office has arrested Rasheen Crews, a political consultant, on charges related to forging signatures on nomination petitions in municipal elections.

An important reminder that interfering with the integrity of our elections is a serious crime.https://t.co/ApxmufLWdk

— Michelle Henry (@PAAttorneyGen) November 16, 2022

According to a statement from the attorney general’s office, Crews forged “signatures on nomination petitions to get his clients on the ballot for the 2019 Democratic primary races in Philadelphia.” 

Authorities found that in 2019 several Democratic candidates hired Crews to gather the signatures needed to run in the primary elections. “Crews recruited individuals to help with the petition work, bringing them to a hotel room and asking them to write names, addresses, and forged signatures on multiple petitions,” the AG’s office explains. 

Furthermore, “Crews then had these petitions notarized and filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State on behalf of his clients.” 

Upon review, authorities found over a thousand signatures were duplicates, with some names “found repeated on various petition pages.” Some of the people listed say they signed the petition in the first place.