Diamond airs claims over withdrawn 2024 petitions; Dems respond

Allegations about possibly bogus signatures on the nomination petitions of Laura Quick, erstwhile Democratic competitor for Russ Diamond’s seat in 2024, have been raised by the six-term incumbent, who also pointed the finger at the Democrat vying this fall to represent the 102nd Legislative District.

In a Substack post published Aug. 28, Diamond said that dozens of signatures on Quick’s 2024 petitions were likely forgeries. Diamond said further that Matt Duvall, his challenger this fall after the now-former county Democratic committee chair secured enough write-in votes to appear on the ballot, signed as the circulator of one of the petition pages – which, according to Diamond, contained 26 apparent forgeries out of 30 signatures. Diamond linked to the full set of petitions on his website.

Quick withdrew her 2024 candidacy before the primary election. She had previously run against Diamond in the 2022 election, earning about 30% of the vote. Diamond said in the Substack post that he was bringing up the issue now because “Lebanon County Democrats appear to have rewarded the deception and fraud surrounding her petition submission two years ago,” referencing Quick’s election this spring to the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. (Duvall challenged Diamond in the 2020 election, also taking about 30% of the vote.)

“Lebanon County Democrats owe voters – especially the voters whose signatures were apparently forged in 2024 – an explanation not just for the circumstances surrounding Ms. Quick’s troublesome petition filing, but also for why she was subsequently promoted to two leadership positions, and for Mr. Duvall’s role in both of these matters while serving as Chairman of their county committee,” Diamond said in the post.

Contacted by LebTown, Duvall offered a different explanation for Diamond making an issue of the 2024 petitions.

“Why is Russ making an issue of this, and why now?” Duvall wrote in an email to LebTown. “He explicitly told me (while implicitly threatening my kids): he wants to guarantee no competition for his job.”

Duvall previously wrote about the situation in his own Substack post, published Aug. 10. Duvall said in the post that Diamond contacted him on Aug. 6 saying that, if he didn’t drop out of the race, he was “prepared to release information that would destroy my campaign.”

In the Substack post and in emails to LebTown, Duvall acknowledged issues with the nomination petitions.

“On the petition I circulated, there were four signatures,” wrote Duvall in an email to LebTown. “Certainly that sheet was recirculated when it shouldn’t have been.”

He said in the Substack post that what got submitted to the Department of State included additional signatures that he had not collected and could not vouch for.

Duvall said that he does not know who or how those signatures got added.

“What I do know is that as chair, I contacted the state party and also convened an emergency LCDC meeting,” Duvall said in the Substack post. “The candidate acknowledged that several petitions were re-circulated when they should not have been. However, they said they were unaware of any forgeries. And they considered it a moot point since they had withdrawn from the race.”

Duvall wrote in the post that, given the circumstances, the Democratic committee decided further investigation was pointless.

In an email to LebTown, Quick said she had no knowledge of any forgeries. She said that Diamond had called Duvall in the days before the deadline for withdrawing from the ballot.

“Even though Matt Duvall had earned his write-in votes to get on the ballot, an elected official was bullying him to withdraw from the race,” said Quick. “In my humble opinion THIS is the story you should be pursuing.”

Quick said she spoke to Diamond herself after he contacted Duvall and came to a conclusion that Diamond’s root issue was her roles with the state Democratic committee as well as the “Mondays with Meuser” protest group, which is organized by Lebanon County Indivisible.

“My conclusion is what Russ is complaining about as a lack of leadership is really just being disgruntled with the decisions that were made by OUR leadership in the County Democratic party,” said Quick.

Quick told LebTown that “of course” the county Democratic committee finds forgery to be unacceptable, going on to say that what’s also unacceptable is an elected official throwing out spurious accusations.

“The idea that Russ Diamond is doing this to ‘protect his job’ is just an absolute canard,” said Quick. “Maybe if Representative Diamond focused more on doing his job than bullying Democrats, he wouldn’t have to protect his job.”

Quick answered LebTown’s questions about the petitions but disclaimed beforehand that, “I do want to stress that I feel that feeding into this delusion that Russ has found ‘election fraud’ is really not serving anyone and giving a bully the exact attention he craves.”

Diamond, she said, sat on the issue for more than two years “and is freaking out now in August of 2026 about all the Republican seats that are being flipped by Democrats across the country.”

“Russ Diamond is in a position of power,” said Quick. “When someone uses their position of power against someone else that is called bullying.”

Quick reiterated that she had no knowledge of any forgeries. She said that the addresses were in order because canvassers knock on doors to collect signatures.

Duvall echoed Quick in his own comments.

“He wants to suppress the voters of Lebanon County who would like to see a choice for their representative,” said Duvall. He said that people who want a candidate other than Diamond deserve a voice.

“I suspect there are more people who are tired of the status quo, or who at least don’t want their elected representatives trying to bully valid candidates into not running,” he said.

Regarding the Duvall-circulated petition, Diamond said in an email to LebTown that, because Arborgate does not permit such door-to-door activity, it was a “dead giveaway.” Diamond said the volume of signatures on the same day was another of the “tell-tale signs of what is commonly called a ‘kitchen table job.'”

LebTown noted that many signatures superficially appeared to be in different handwriting, while addresses and printed names on the Duvall petition appeared to be by the same hand. Diamond pointed out that it’d still be illegal to fill out addresses and names on behalf of a signer; Pennsylvania’s Election Code requires signers to fill out their own name and address.

There were several reasons for her dropping out of the 2024 race, Quick said, including personal ones, but acknowledged that signatures did “kind of” play a role in her decision-making – although not because of any forgeries, she said.

Quick said that she fell ill with COVID-19 during the short petition-gathering window in 2024 and relied largely on volunteers to circulate the petitions, which needed at least 300 signatures.

“The result was that I only turned in 332 when I filed – meaning I had a 32 signature ‘cushion,'” said Quick.

Quick said she didn’t think that would be a problem because she didn’t have a Democratic primary opponent and only other Democrats could challenge the petitions. However, she said Diamond contacted her at the time and related that he had Democrats lined up to make the challenges.

“As I said before I had no knowledge of any possible bogus signatures, but I did know I only had 32 signatures to lose and no money to withstand a challenge,” said Quick. “I was also aware of possible issues with all the petitions coming out of Lebanon County, so I decided to let Russ think whatever he wanted about my reasoning for withdrawal so he wouldn’t focus on those other issues.”

In his Substack post, Diamond said, “When I watch the news, it sure seems like Democrats are willing to do anything – and I mean anything – to win elections and seize the levers of power at the national level.” He said he has personally witnessed the same tendency among some Democrats in Harrisburg. “And sadly, it looks like Democrats right here in Lebanon County are no different.”

Diamond said in the post that he does “not believe there are many Lebanon County voters who condone apparent deception, fraud, or forgery.”

“Nor would many approve of rewarding those responsible for such acts,” said Diamond.

Quick said there are many things that can invalidate a signature on a petition, and because she had many volunteers helping her, she wasn’t exactly sure how her 332 signatures would stand up during a challenge.

“I had felt the obligation of going through with the candidacy because of the volunteers who had gone door to door collecting signatures, but my heart wasn’t in it,” said Quick, adding that in 2024 she really just wanted to put the whole thing behind her and didn’t look very closely at the petitions.

“When I look at the petitions that certain sections are zeroed in on today with my 2026 eyes, I can see rather similar handwriting – more in the printing – but I see no problems with sequential street numbers since I know we go door to door to collect signatures,” she said.