Project 2025 calls for former Pennsylvania secretary of state to be impeached

Project 2025, a controversial conservative program developed by many former advisers to former President Donald Trump, says Pennsylvania’s top elections official “should be (and continue to be) investigated and prosecuted” by the Justice Department for her guidance on provisional voting during the 2020 election.

Although the roughly 900-page policy brief does not mention any specific name, it could only be former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, who served as the Commonwealth’s ombudsman. top electoral official then.

Targeting a specific election official in a key swing state that will likely decide the November race is another attempt by pro-Trump Republicans to fan the flames of uncertainty in electoral processes. Trump lost Pennsylvania to Biden in 2020 and spent months pushing false claims of election fraud in the run-up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“I have news for them: Protecting the right of American citizens to exercise their fundamental right to vote is not a crime. In fact, it is quite the opposite,” Boockvar said.

The 2025 Project Agenda, formally known as Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, was created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The project, released last year, is Trump’s proposed agenda for a second term, which includes plans to fire civil servants, expand the president’s powers, disband the Education Department and end sales of the abortion pill.

Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 in the face of negative reaction to the document, even though former Trump administration officials were involved in it.

Boockvar said Project 2025’s message about Pennsylvania is “a further illustration of what we can expect from their playbook” for 2024.

“They’re going to file a lawsuit again, they’re going to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks, and they’re going to do it in the courts, and they’re going to do it in the streets, and they’re going to do it in the streets, on our phones, in public spaces on our networks… and we have to stay vigilant,” Boockvar said.

The program’s main objection to Pennsylvania elections appears to be the state’s exploit of provisional ballots, which are issued when county election officials need more time to assess a voter’s eligibility, according to the Department of State.

The 2025 Project writes that under Pennsylvania law, “no county can unequivocally deliver provisional ballots: a voter voting by mail must vote in person and sign a new affidavit.” The plan suggests limiting federal civil rights enforcement and redirecting the Justice Department to investigate alleged voter registration fraud at the state level for that reason, making it easier that officials like Boockvar be held criminally responsible.

But the project’s claims about Pennsylvania law are untrue, said Geoff Morrow, deputy director of communications at the State Department.

“Any accusations that the Department used the guidelines to circumvent election law are false, and it is long past time to stop arguing about the verified results of the 2020 election,” Morrow said Monday. “The plans outlined in the 2025 Project are a clear attempt to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.”

Provisional votes can be provided for various reasonsincluding, but not circumscribed to, a voter registering in the wrong polling district or being unable to produce the required identification.

Eligible Pennsylvania voters may also receive a provisional ballot if they have completed an absentee or mail-in ballot that has been rejected or is expected to be rejected. They may also receive a provisional ballot if they have unsuccessfully voted an absentee or mail-in ballot and have not “returned” their ballot and outer return envelope to their polling place.

After submitting the provisional ballot, the county election commission will make a decision within seven days after the election, whether the voter was eligible to vote in the constituency where the voter used the provisional card. If eligible, the vote will be counted.

Republicans have tried to cloud the general election landscape before. In 2020, Trump’s campaign began several lawsuitsbased on unsubstantiated information, in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, in hopes of overturning the election results. One lawsuit was intended to stop the certification of votes in Pennsylvaniaclaiming that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters.