Pa. attorney general charges Pine woman for alleged forged signatures for school board election

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced charges against a Pine woman on Thursday for allegedly forging at least four signatures on primary nomination paperwork for a Pine-Richland School Board candidate.

Kayla Van Blargan, 36, is charged with forgery, perjury and several other related offenses.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, Van Blargan forged the signatures on a nomination petition for candidate Kathleen Ravotti, who eventually dropped out of the race.

Ravotti is not currently charged.

To register for a primary election, candidates must acquire 10 signatures from Democrats or Republicans, by way of a petition circulator, to have their name placed on the ballot.

But Elizabeth DeLosa, an attorney also running for school board, filed an objection in March, alleging several signatures on the Democratic petition circulated by Van Blargan were forged.

The objection included signed affidavits from four of Ravotti’s neighbors in Pine, claiming they had declined the candidate’s request to sign the petition, but their names were included anyway.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, its agent interviewed the electors whose names were on the petition, and they confirmed they did not sign it.

Van Blargan also signed a statement of circulator, which is a legal declaration that asks the petition circulator to swear that the information included in the documents is true and correct to the best of their knowledge.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Alexander Cashman of the public corruption section.

DeLosa, who remains in the school board race, said the community “deserves leaders who model trust and accountability at all times.”

Van Blargan’s charging papers were not immediately available, and she didn’t respond to a TribLive request for comment.