MAGA influencer who spread voter fraud conspiracy theories lives in Maryland, votes in Pa.: report

Far-right activist Jack Posobiec is known for peddling conspiracy theories about the integrity of recent elections particularly in Pennsylvania.

Now, Posobiec, an outspoken MAGA booster best known for promoting the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy, is at the center of an investigative report showing that he is a Maryland resident who has been voting fraudulently in Pennsylvania elections.

A report by Slate, found that Posobiec, who helped amplify the “Stop the Steal” movement in 2020, has been voting in Montgomery County, Pa. for a number of election cycles, even as he was a Maryland resident.

Posobiec, 40, voted in Pennsylvania elections from 2004 to 2024, both in person and by mail, even though he has lived in Maryland at least a decade, according to Slate. The news magazine obtained documents, including a copy of his voting record, to corroborate the finding.

The report points to “extremely strong” evidence that Posobiec lives in Maryland, including public records such as a divorce filing, and most damning, Federal Election Commission filings showing his political contributions associated with a Maryland address.

Slate also perused Posobiec’s prolific social media accounts, where he repeatedly boasts about his home and family life in Maryland; last fall, he even posted on X a photo of his Pennsylvania ballot marked up.

“SECURED THE BAG. Just stopped by the county voting board and did the deed – easy and even open on Sunday! Vote Early, Pennsylvania!” he wrote on the post, which was accompanied by two photos of him, including his marked up ballot.

In an interview with PennLive, Pennsylvania election law expert and attorney Adam Bonin laid out why Posobiec’s voting record could be a crime.

“The law says anyone who votes or attempts to vote knowing that they don’t actually have the qualification to do so has committed a misdemeanor and it’s subject to a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to five years based on what the court decides,” he said. “This is a crime. It is a crime if you know that you’re not qualified and you keep doing it outright.”

Voter registration is based on one residential address.

In its investigation, Slate found that Posobiec used military and civilian overseas ballots until 2016. A year later, after resigning from his job as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer, he remained in Maryland.

He continued voting in Pennsylvania via absentee ballots and, later, in-person on-demand mail voting, using his parents’ home address in 2018, 2022, and 2024, according to an official copy of his voter information file from Montgomery County obtained through a right-to-know request.

Posobiec has aligned himself with far-right groups such as Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and was the mastermind behind the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which claimed that Democratic politicians were engaged in runnning a pedophile ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant. The false rumor inspired a gunman to fire multiple shots inside the restaurant in 2016, though no one was hurt.

But Posobiec, known for his vicious trolling of political adversaries online, cemented his status as a social media influencer pushing a slew of conspiracy theories about how Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, won elections with millions of fraudulent votes.

Posobiec notably helped get traction on election fraud conspiracies. The Republican National Committee last year filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County, a Philadelphia suburb, claiming the county had failed to ensure election integrity.

“Why are you sending out illegal mail-in ballots, Neil?” Posobiec posted on X in October, directing his trolling to county commissioner Neil Makhija.

The lawsuit was eventually withdrawn.

“Petitioners have failed to produce any evidence that Montgomery County’s process was unlawful or inaccurate,” Judge Richard P. Haaz opined, rejecting the RNC’s claims.

He also accused Gov. Josh Shapiro of “disenfranchising” voters and echoed Trump’s stolen election claims with social media posts about Pennsylvania counties processing thousands of fraudulent voter registrations.

Claims of evidence alleging a stolen 2020 election were exhaustively investigated and litigated across scores of courts, and by state and federal officials, and were found to have no merit.

Bonin noted the irony of Posobiec voting, as the Slate investigation found, in Montgomery County.

“There’s this line that we sometimes say in politics, every accusation is a confession,” he said. “It sure sounds like it here. I mean, this based on the facts….This is someone who has not lived in Pennsylvania in quite some time under any reasonable understanding of the law here.”

Posobiec would not be the first conservative to seemingly violate election law, even as they espoused debunked theories about fraudulent Democratic votes.

In 2022, Matt Mowers, a former senior adviser for President Trump, was caught having voted twice during the 2016 primary election. Mowers, at the time a New Hampshire Republican congressional candidate, cast an absentee ballot in that state, and then used his parents’ address in New Jersey to vote in that state as well, the Associated Press reported.

While Mowers’ actions seemed to have violated federal election law, he was not prosecuted.

“Let’s be absolutely clear, voter fraud is incredibly rare,” Bonin said. “You only see it in rare circumstances and most of what we’ve seen is people trying to cast mail-in ballots for recently deceased relatives. Double voting is also pretty rare and people do tend to get caught because whether you voted is a matter of public record. It’s harder to catch a single person who is voting in a different state without being qualified there because you really need people to know about it and investigate it like these great reporters have.”

Voter fraud cases are, in general, misdemeanor cases that often result in probation and a fine; rarely jail time. Posobiec has not been charged with any violation of voting laws.

“(T)hat’s going to be up to the judge based on these facts,” Bonin said. “It’s going to be up to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office and Attorney General (Dave) Sunday.

The county DA’s office told Slate it did not comment on active investigations. Sunday’s office would neither confirm nor deny that it had opened an investigation.

The Slate report was undertaken by independent investigative reporter, Jacqueline Sweet, and journalist Marisa Kabas, who launched the Handbasket, an independent political news publication.