Trump taps ‘alternate’ elector Bill Bachenberg as Republican Electoral College member
Each presidential candidate will have their own electors who only vote if their side wins
Lehigh Valley Republican Bill Bachenberg, who chaired a group of unauthorized electors in 2020, has been chosen by former President Trump to be a member of the Electoral College in Pennsylvania for the 2024 presidential race.
The co-owner of Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays in North Whitehall was among 19 Republicans certified by the GOP nominee to cast votes for him should he prevail on Nov. 5. He had been on Trump’s list in 2020 as well.
Bachenberg was the leader of 20 Republicans who anointed themselves as so-called alternate electors in Pennsylvania in 2020 after Joe Biden won and Trump asserted the election had been stolen, despite evidence that the results were valid. Such self-appointed members also have been labeled “fake electors.”
Bachenberg did not respond to an email Monday afternoon seeking comment.
Another Lehigh Valley Republican on the 2024 list is Bernadette Comfort of Fogelsville, who is the vice chair of the Republican Party. Like Bachenberg, she was slated to serve as an elector in 2020 if Trump had won and then became one of the unauthorized 2020 electors.
The group, which included Bethlehem attorney Tom Carroll, gathered to vote for Trump on Dec. 20, 2020 – the same day that authorized Electoral College members cast their votes for Biden.
Unlike Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, where alternate electors are facing charges related to filing false paperwork, Pennsylvania’s unauthorized electors have avoided legal repercussions because their certificate of the votes clearly stated they would not be recognized unless Trump prevailed in his lawsuits to overturn Biden's win.
Still, Bachenberg was subpoenaed to testify about his role as chair before a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives looking into the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. There is no record in committee records that he testified.
Trump’s current list includes three other members of the 2020 unauthorized group who were also certified electors that year – Ash Khare, Patricia Poprik and Andrew Reilly.
Electoral College process
U.S. presidents are officially elected through the Electoral College. A candidate must reach 270 votes out of 538 electoral votes to win.
All states, except for Maine and Nebraska, have “a winner-take-all policy,” according to the National Archives.
The distribution of Electoral College members is based on the U.S. Census. Each state receives two votes for its two U.S. senators plus a number of votes equal to the amount of U.S. House members it has, according to the National Archives.
Pennsylvania had 20 Electoral College members in 2020, but now has 19 because it lost a U.S. House seat in 2022 after the latest census.
Under Pennsylvania law, each presidential candidate must submit a list of certified members for the Electoral College within 30 days of being officially nominated. Harris was nominated on Aug. 5 so she has time to turn in her list.
On Election Day, voters technically vote for Electoral College members, not the candidate. The candidate who wins in most states gets all of their Electoral College votes.
Bachenberg a Trump loyalist
Bachenberg’s appearance on the list signals Trump’s support to loyalists who back his claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
Bachenberg is a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed last year by a New York cybersecurity company called XRVision and its president Yaacov Apelbaum in the U.S. District Court in Michigan.
The company sued Bachenberg and Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert for failing to pay it for a forensic analysis of voting machines in Pennsylvania’s Fulton County after results did not show evidence of fraud. Fulton County has been involved in protracted lawsuits over the 2020 results despite Trump’s overwhelming win there.
The lawsuit alleges that Bachenberg agreed to pay for attorney fees and expenses in various election fraud investigations and lawsuits and provided a $1 million line of credit to Lambert’s law firm.
Bachenberg and Lambert have denied the allegations in court filings. A trial is scheduled for January 2025.
A summary of an Arizona State Senate hearing regarding an audit of the 2020 election results includes a Sept. 27, 2021, email that Bachenberg wrote on the subject.
It said, in part, “Attached is a high-level Summary of the AZ Senate hearing and Auditor reports presented Friday in one easy to read Summary. Please distribute to all your friends, they need to hear the truth. PA will be one of the next domino’s to fall.”
Bachenberg, who is first vice president of the NRA, has actively supported Republican candidates, hosting political rallies at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays. In the 2020 presidential campaign, Donald Trump Jr. attended a rally there to launch a Sportsmen for Trump coalition. And in April Bachenberg hosted a rally for Republican David McCormick, who is making a second bid for the U.S. Senate and is trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Bob Casey.
He has also contributed heavily with more than $500,000 over the last 25 years going to Republican PACs, groups and candidates, including Donald Trump’s first two presidential campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission data. He has not donated to Trump’s campaign in 2024, according to a review of federal data. Last year, he gave $7,500 to a PAC supporting a slate of Republicans running for school board in Parkland. The slate lost.
His closeness with Trump includes allegedly being in Washington, D.C., at the Trump International Hotel the day before a riotous group broke through gates and police to enter the U.S. Capitol, temporarily disrupting the certfication of Biden’s win.
In testimony before the House select committee, Alexandra Preate, a Steve Bannon associate, said Bachenberg was at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5, 2021.
When asked whether VIPs other than Trump family members came to an event that day at what was called the “townhouse,” she said she only remembered “this guy, Bill Bachenberg” because he was from Pennsylvania. Preate is the daughter of former Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate.
Trump’s full list of certified Republican electors
William “Bill”Bachenberg, Allentown
Vallerie Biancaniello, Broomall
Curt Coccodrilli, Jefferson Township
Bernadette Comfort, Fogelsville
Robert Gleason, Johnstown
Joyce Haas, State College
Fred Keller, Middleburg
Ash Khare, Warren
JonDavid Longo, Slippery Rock
Robin Medeiros, Clarks Summit
Rochelle Pasquariello, Lehighton
Patricia Poprick, Doylestown
Andrew Reilly, Media
Carol “Lynne” Ryan, New Castle
Carla Sands, Camp Hill
James “Jim” Vasilko, Johnstown
T. Lynette Villano, West Pittston
Christine Wilkins, East Stroudsburg/Analomink
Samuel “Jim”Worthington, Newtown