Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Resigns, But Not For The Reason You'd Think

By Scott Hounsell | 5:00 PM on February 04, 2021

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Pennsylvania’s Kathy Boockvar made headlines this last year, when she unilaterally decided to not enforce a PA State law, Constitutionally passed by a legislative body, because she felt that she knew better than the Pennsylvania State Legislature. Then, to make matters worse, she took no action to comply with an order from the United States Supreme Court when the State was ordered to separate ballots that arrived after a certain date or without postmarks.

But I digress.

Boockvar announced her resignation as Secretary of the Commonwealth after the Pennsylvania Department of State failed to meet requirements to allow for a statewide vote.

MCall.com reports:

Pennsylvania’s top election official will resign after her agency made a mistake that will delay a statewide vote on whether survivors of decades-old sexual abuse should be able to sue the perpetrators and institutions that covered up the crimes.

Secretary Kathy Boockvar, who oversaw a tense and difficult presidential election in the battleground state, will resign Feb. 5, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday. Spotlight PA first reported the news.

The resignation follows the discovery that the Department of State did not advertise, as required, a long-sought amendment to the state constitution that would open a two-year window for litigation by survivors of child sexual abuse who have aged out of the statute of limitations.

The error means that Pennsylvanians won’t be able to vote on such a change until spring 2023 at the earliest — a blow to survivors who have fought for a window for nearly two decades.

As an aside, and while I am no lawyer, you’d expect for someone who ignored an order from SCOTUS to face some sort of punishment, like being held in contempt. Boockvar and her colleague, Attorney General Josh Shapiro both deserve to be thrown in jail pending their trials for contempt.

Additionally, it seems convenient that despite how badly she messed up the counting of the votes, the elimination of the potential for fraud, and other issues that we saw in the 2020 election, that it was another showing of incompetence that sent her packing. Along with this though, likely comes all of the benefits of “quitting” as opposed to being recalled or removed by the legislature.

Either way, good riddance.