Appeal Seeks To Overturn Victims’ Rights Referendum Decision

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s chief elections official is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling preventing the state from immediately counting or certifying results in next week’s referendum on a victims’ rights constitutional amendment.  Acting Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar filed an emergency order Thursday arguing the ruling a day earlier by Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler will suppress voter turnout and “foment irreparable uncertainty” among voters.  The Supreme Court ordered both sides to file briefs Friday.  The filing by the attorney general’s office, which represents Boockvar, criticizes Ceisler’s decision as unprecedented.  The amendment would enshrine into the state constitution a set of victims’ rights.  Ceisler said the amendment would have immediate, profound and irreversible consequences for the rights of accused and the criminal justice system.