A notorious far-right activist has been hit with a lawsuit alleging he violated campaign finance law as part of his push to oust liberal state judges.
Scott Presler, who founded the political action committee Early Vote Action, allegedly ran a coordinated campaign urging voters to reject retention of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, both Democrats, and David Wecht — at the time a Democrat but now an independent — during a high-stakes election that could have flipped control of the judiciary in America's largest swing state.
According to liberal elections outlet Democracy Docket, a complaint filed by Public Citizen alleges Presler and EVA “spent significant but unknown sums to influence voters to ‘Vote No’ on the retention of” the three justices.
Public Citizen argues that under Pennsylvania law, any PAC or individual spending money to sway a retention election must register and file regular financial disclosures with the state — something neither Presler nor his PAC ever did, despite the campaign's reach extending into national and local media appearances.
Presler, who has pushed election conspiracy theories and has ties to the extremist QAnon movement, is a figure with a long history of controversy. In 2016, he was dismissed from a field office role by the Republican Party of Virginia after he was allegedly caught hooking up with men in a Virginia Beach campaign office and posting explicit images of the incident on Craigslist.
Since then, he has emerged as a relentless advocate for conservative voter registration drives. He once claimed his efforts in Amish Country helped swing Pennsylvania for Trump in 2024, but experts who have looked into this claim dispute it. He has also been dismissed as a "grifter" by key Senate Republicans.