Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D) said she would retire at the end of the week after her office failed to properly advertise a proposed constitutional amendment to extend the civil lawsuit to alleged victims of child sexual abuse. not.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the plaintiffs would have been given two years to file civil lawsuits. State legislation requires that proposed amendments be passed by the legislature during successive sessions before being presented directly to the electorate as a voting initiative.
By law, the State Department is required to place newspaper advertisements setting out such proposed amendments.
While lawmakers passed the measure in 2019 for the first time and were ready to pass it again in 2020, the state department, according to the newspaper, failed to place the ads. This means that the amendment process must start from the beginning, unless legislators pass a bill that creates the same two-year opening.
‘The delay caused by this human error will be heartbreaking to thousands of survivors of sexual assault, advocates and lawmakers, and I join the Department of Foreign Affairs. I share your anger and frustration that this has happened, and I stand with you in your fight for justice, ”said Gov. Tom Wolf
Pennsylvania Judge Tom Wolf to defy weed ban, LGBTQ rights flags Republicans plan to revamp vote after Biden’s victory Scars of Capitol attack penetrates high-security inauguration MORE (D), who announced Boockvar’s resignation, said in a statement.
The department also apologized for the oversight on Monday, calling it a “human error” in a statement. Boockvar was appointed by Wolf in January 2019 after previously serving as senior adviser to Wolf on the modernization of election procedures.
Other states, including New York, have similar laws on the books, leading to a series of lawsuits against institutions, including the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church.
State Representative Mark Rozzi (D), a supporter of the measure who himself alleged sexual abuse by a priest as a teenager, said there was still a chance the proposal could make the May election in the primary election. ‘I was just shocked that it happened, but we have persisted all these years and we will continue to do so. I’ll give up the fight first before it’s over, period, ” he told the WSJ.