Addressing Women’s Safety to Vote: State Address Confidentiality Programs

• In Event: Women and Politics Research & Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: Women and Politics Research Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in four women have experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Beginning in 1991, states enacted address confidentiality programs as a way to balance government transparency and to protect the addresses of survivors of intimate partner violence in public records, including voter registration. Approximately three-quarters of states have instituted address confidentiality programs over the last thirty years to create legal, substitute addresses for survivors to escape abusers and retain their right to vote. The programs vary in terms of the eligibility, participation requirements, and degree of protection. Some states have expanded the programs to include victims of other crimes, including sexual assault, trafficking, and stalking or most recently in California, health officials. In this paper, I explore what factors led to states’ adoption of address confidentiality programs and what explains the varying levels of coverage in the address confidentiality programs. Given the disproportionate impact on intimate partner violence on women, the project investigates what role did women legislators have in the creation of these programs. I expect states with a higher percentage of women in the state legislature will be earlier to adopt safe at home programs and adopt more comprehensive programs. The paper will describe the address confidentiality programs in detail and consider what led some states to make it safer and therefor easier for some to vote. Building on the research that examines how some states have made it more difficult to vote through voter ID laws, this work seeks to understand how states also expanded suffrage to victims of intimate partner violence and other crimes.

Author

• Emily Farris, Texas Christian University