State to air report on how it blundered child sex-abuse vote

The referendum had been on track for last week's primary election until Wolf's administration revealed four months agothat it hadn't advertised the proposal in newspapers across Pennsylvania, as is constitutionally required.

• By The Associated Press

(Harrisburg) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration planned Wednesday to discuss the results of an internal investigation into a bureaucratic blunder that scuttled a statewide voter referendum on whether to give victims of childhood sexual abuse a fresh opportunity to sue their abusers and complicit institutions.

The referendum had been on track for last week’s primary election until Wolf’s administration revealed four months agothat it hadn’t advertised the proposal in newspapers across Pennsylvania, as is constitutionally required.

As a result, it is impossible to hold the referendum before 2023. Wolf ordered his Office of Inspector General to investigate, and his top elections official planned to reveal the agency’s findings.

Meanwhile, the state House of Representatives passed legislation in April — for the third time in five years — to change the law right away to restore the right of now-adult victims to sue over decades-old childhood sexual abuse.

Senate Republicans, however, are blocking the legislation, as they have since 2016, after a state investigation into the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese accused two Roman Catholic bishops of helping cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 priests and other religious leaders over decades.

Senate Republicans argue that the right to sue must be restored constitutionally to be legal. Wolf and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro disagree.