CRANBERRY TWP — A former candidate for Seneca Valley School Board publicly admitted to making false statements regarding an Election Day incident with another candidate's electioneer at a Cranberry Township polling place.

Erin McClymonds, who unsuccessfully ran as a write-in candidate for Seneca Valley's Region 1 school board seat against incumbent Leslie Bredl, on Thursday posted a “statement of retraction” on Facebook regarding the allegations.

Both McClymonds and Urmi Batavia, one of Bredl's electioneers, engaged in what Cranberry police described as a verbal altercation at Grace Victory Church, one of two Region 1 polling places, on the afternoon of Election Day.

On Nov. 2, McClymonds falsely claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post that Batavia was “escorted off property (sic) for harassing me, voter interference and for calling me a racist.” The Eagle reported Nov. 5 that those statements were untrue, and McClymonds on Thursday specifically retracted those allegations, stating “she left of her own free will” and “Mrs. Batavia is not being investigated for any crimes, including voter intimidation or harassment.”

“Since Election Day, differences of opinion and the passions of a spirited campaign have overshadowed the motivation of our involvement,” McClymonds' post reads in part. “In the heat of that passion, I posted a public statement about Urmi Batavia (Bredl's electioneer) that I now know to be untrue.”

McClymonds on Tuesday morning said she has no comment on her public retraction.

"I legally cannot speak about this statement I had to make," she wrote in an email.

The above article, published the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 28, was updated at 12 p.m. Dec. 28 to include a statement made by McClymonds after publication.