Pennsylvania governor-elect Josh Shapiro, who rose to prominence by downplaying Republican claims of voter fraud, charged one of his former campaign consultants on Wednesday with “wide scale” forgery of voter ballots.
Shapiro, in his capacity as Pennsylvania attorney general, alleges that Philadelphia political consultant Rasheen Crews duplicated more than 1,000 signatures on petitions to add his clients to Democratic primary ballots for Philadelphia city elections in 2019.
“By soliciting and organizing the wide scale forgery of signatures, the defendant undermined the democratic process and Philadelphians’ right to a free and fair election,” Shapiro said in a statement announcing the charges.
The announcement of the indictment just a week after the gubernatorial election could raise questions for Shapiro, who was a strident critic of Republicans who cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. According to an arrest affidavit, Shapiro’s office opened an investigation into Crews in September 2019. It is unclear why it took three years to bring charges against him.
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