Posted on 03/26/2021 9:49:55 AM PDT by lightman
Gov. Tom Wolf has nominated Veronica Degraffenreid, the former North Carolina director of election operations, to serve as his next secretary of the Department of State.
Degraffenreid has been serving in that role for the department in an acting capacity since the abrupt Feb. 5 departure of Kathy Boockvar. Her nomination will be presented to the Senate for confirmation, which has 25 legislative days to act on it.
“I am honored to be nominated to serve as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Degraffenreid said. “In my time with the Department of State, I have had the privilege of working with outstanding staff at the state and county levels, and I look forward to continuing our good work together to serve Pennsylvania voters, licensees, business owners, non-profit and charitable organizations and state athletics.”
She steps into a role of being the overseer of the state’s elections, among other duties, at a time when both chambers of the Legislature are looking to make changes to the law to address some of the challenges that arose during the 2020 election cycle.
Wolf indicated in a statement announcing her nomination that work falls into Degraffenreid’s area of expertise.
“Veronica Degraffenreid is a nationally respected expert in election administration and the perfect person to lead the Department of State,” the governor said. “Veronica has extensive experience in operating elections from security and poll worker training to voter registration, voting site administration and modern voting systems.”
In addition, he said as acting secretary, she has shown leadership in other areas of the department’s responsibilities, including supporting economic development through corporate filings and transactions and protecting public health and safety through professional licensure.
She takes over a department that became the target of a lot of criticism under Boockvar’s administration for her handling of the 2020 election cycle when no-excuse mailed ballots were introduced to Pennsylvania along with other election-related changes that created a lot of logistical problems for county election officials.
But it was the department’s failure to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment so it could appear on the May 18 primary ballot that led the embattled Boockvar to resign. That amendment would have provided a two-year window for child sex abuse survivors to file civil suits against their abusers if the statute of limitations had expired. Senate Republican leaders called for an investigation into how that mistake happened.
This week, the General Assembly passed legislation to start the lengthy constitutional amendment process on that issue over again with hopes of getting it on a ballot in 2023.
Degraffenreid’s nomination is applauded by the nonpartisan statewide election reform coalition, Keystone Votes. The organization’s state coordinator Ray Murphy said in an earlier statement that they look forward to working with her “to build on the progress our commonwealth has already made in the way of election reforms.”
Degraffenreid joined the Department of State in February 2020 as special adviser on election modernization. In that role, she supported county election officials in the last election cycle including providing personal protective equipment to election workers and voters across the state in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also led the department’s first expanded county liaisons program, which matched department staff with election officials in each county to provide information and more direct access to the department during last year’s busy election cycle.
Prior to coming to the department, Degraffenreid served in various roles with the North Carolina Board of Elections over the course of a decade. That included six years as its director of election operations managing a team of election specialists that trained, supported and provided administrative oversight to that state’s 100 county boards of elections.
Earlier in her career, she served as special litigation legal assistant with the North Carolina Department of Justice specializing in redistricting and election-related litigation. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where she earned a bachelor’s in economics.
She joins a growing list of acting secretaries awaiting Senate confirmation as Wolf’s term-limited administration winds to a close in January 2023. Others awaiting confirmation include Alison Beam as health secretary, Noe Ortega as education secretary, Jennifer Berrier as labor & industry secretary, and Meg Snead as human services secretary.
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I have always wondered, why does a state need a department of state?
In Pennsylvania, among other duties: To be the repository for filings of articles of incorporation for business and non-profits; to monitor charitable organizations to ensure that they are in fact true charities and not bloated administratively...and also to oversee voter registration and elections.
She needs to change her name to an American name.
Veronica Reid would work.
My question is, Is she a Soros Plant?
“Veronica Degraffenreid, the former North Carolina director of election operations, ...”
By definition of a democrat governor selecting another states' election manager, YES. Another Sorors supplicant.
Thanks RACPE.
Veronica Degraffenreid, the former North Carolina director of election operations... has been serving in that role for the department in an acting capacity since the abrupt Feb. 5 departure of Kathy Boockvar... it was the department’s failure to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment so it could appear on the May 18 primary ballot that led the embattled Boockvar to resign. That amendment would have provided a two-year window for child sex abuse survivors to file civil suits against their abusers if the statute of limitations had expired. Senate Republican leaders called for an investigation into how that mistake happened.
'Mistake', that's adorable.
Did they stop calling it Secretary of the Commonwealth?
How long can she serve as acting Secretary of the Commonwealth? There should be a reasonable limit, like months not years. It would be interesting for taxpayers to see a deep dive into her background - like, funders, social media posts, political, litigation, family, Soros connections, etc. It seems Dems are always doing this to Repubs. We need to get more aggressive and defend our voter integrity instead of bending over to their take over.
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