Pennsylvania Commonwealth Secretary Kathy Boockvar (D) said she will step down at the end of the week after her office failed to properly advertise a proposed constitutional amendment to close the civil suit for alleged sexual abuse victims. of children.
The amendment would have given plaintiffs two years to file civil lawsuits, according to The Wall Street Journal. State law requires proposed amendments to pass through the state legislature first in successive sittings before being directly submitted to voters as a voting initiative.
The Pennsylvania Department of State is required by law to post newspaper advertisements describing such proposed changes.
While lawmakers first passed the measure in 2019 and were ready to accept it again in 2020, the state agency did not place the ads, according to the paper. This means the amendment process must start from scratch unless lawmakers pass a bill creating the same two-year opening.
“The delay caused by this human error will be heartbreaking for thousands of survivors of childhood sexual violence, advocates and lawmakers, and I join the State Department to apologize to you. I share your anger and frustration that this has happened, and I am with you in your fight for justice, ”Gov. Tom Wolf
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The State Department also apologized for the mistake on Monday, calling it the result of “simple human error” in a statement. Boockvar was appointed by Wolf in January 2019 after previously serving as a senior adviser to the governor in modernizing electoral procedures.
Other states, including New York, have similar laws on the books, which have led to a series of lawsuits against institutions, including the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Mark Rozzi (D), a proponent of the measure who himself claimed sexual abuse by a priest as a teenager, said there is still a chance the proposal would make it to the May primaries.
“I’m just shocked that this has happened, but we have persisted for all these years and we will continue to do just that. I will not give up the fight until this is done, period, ”he told the Journal.