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Kathy Boockvar is stepping down at Pennsylvania Secretary of State effective Feb. 5 following her department&rsquo;s failure to publicly advertise a constitutional amendment involving victims rights, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday.
				The amendment would retroactively extend the timeline for victims to file civil actions against their abusers. As a result of the advertising failure, the constitutional amendment process must now start from the beginning unless state legislators pursue the initiative through the bill process, Wolf said.
				&ldquo;This change at the Department of State has nothing to do with the administration of the 2020 election, which was fair and accurate,&rdquo; Wolf said in a release.
				&ldquo;The delay caused by this human error will be heartbreaking for thousands of survivors of childhood sexual assault, advocates and legislators, and I join the Department of State in apologizing to you. I share your anger and frustration that this happened, and I stand with you in your fight for justice,&rdquo; the governor added.
				In response to the amendment advertising issue, the department is immediately instituting new controls, including additional tracking and notifications of constitutional amendments, to ensure similar failings do not occur in the future, Wolf said. He has asked the Pennsylvania Office of State Inspector General to review the situation and make additional recommendations to improve the department&rsquo;s process for handling constitutional amendments.
				Boockvar worked with the department three years, including two as secretary. She is leaving the administration, the release said.
				The governor will appoint Veronica Degraffenreid to serve as acting secretary of the commonwealth. Degraffenreid was the department&rsquo;s special advisor on election modernization. She has over 12 years of experience in election administration and was the former election operations director for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
				Stemming from the child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, the proposed amendment first passed the legislature as House Bill 963 in November 2019.
				According to the release:
				The Department of State was constitutionally required to advertise the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment in two newspapers in every county, in each of the three months before the next general election when members of the General Assembly are elected. That advertising did not occur before the 2020 general election, the state said.
				Proposed constitutional amendments must pass in two consecutive sessions of the state legislature, after which the proposal is put to the voters in a statewide referendum. The General Assembly was set to begin the process for second passage of the amendment this week. In preparing for the potential passage, Department of State staffers noticed late last week that the amendment was not previously advertised.
				Wolf said he will work with the General Assembly to reach a legislative resolution.
				He thanked Boockvar for taking responsibility for the department&rsquo;s error and praised her leadership over the past three years to provide a fair election last year under tremendously challenging circumstances.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely proud of what we&rsquo;ve accomplished for the people of Pennsylvania,&rdquo; Boockvar said in the release. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always believed that accountability and leadership must be a cornerstone of public service. While I only became aware of the mistake last week, and immediately took steps to alert the administration to the error, I accept responsibility on behalf of the department.&rdquo;
				Shortly before Wolf&rsquo;s personnel announcement, Boockvar&rsquo;s office issued a release apologizing for the amendment advertising failure. It said other proposed constitutional amendments from the last legislative session were properly advertised, but this one was missed &ldquo;through simple human error.&rdquo;
				State Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued a statement describing the department&rsquo;s advertising failure as &ldquo;shameful.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;Too many institutions have failed survivors of sexual abuse for far too long, and I am determined for that disgraceful streak to end and to make sure justice is no longer denied,&rdquo; Shapiro&rsquo;s release said.
				Shapiro said the constitutional amendment process was an &ldquo;unnecessary hurdle from the beginning,&rdquo; and he urged state legislators and the governor to follow the example of many other states by passing the reform into law so Pennsylvania survivors &ldquo;have their day in court as soon as possible.&rdquo;

Pennsylvania election head stepping down