HARRISBURG – Kathy Boockvar is out as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State after the department failed to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment on sex abuse.
Governor Tom Wolf announced Monday the change is effective this Friday. Because of the error, the process to amend the constitution must now start over, unless the General Assembly pursues this initiative through the bill process.
The proposed amendment was in response to the child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and was first passed by the House in November 2019. The Department of State was then constitutionally required to advertise the wording of the proposed amendment in two newspapers in every county, in each of the three months before the next general election. That advertising did not occur before the 2020 general election.
Governor Wolf says the change has nothing to do with the administration of the 2020 election, still calling the elections last year ‘fair and accurate.’ The governor is now asking the Pennsylvania Office of State Inspector General to review the situation. T
he department is also immediately instituting new controls, including additional tracking and notifications of constitutional amendments. The governor is also appointing Veronica Degraffenreid to serve as acting secretary of the commonwealth.
