By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has stressed the importance of a citizen’s right to vote and he is hoping than an initiative will be able to help victims of violence be able to do so safely.

Husted held a special meeting Monday afternoon with Crawford County Prosecutor Matthew Crall, the Crawford County Board of Elections, and members of the media to discuss his Safe at Home initiative. The Safe at Home initiative would allow victims of violence – domestic violence, human trafficking, rape, sexual battery, and more – to keep their addresses confidential by allowing them to establish a post office box at the Secretary of State’s Office.

“It’s something that is long overdue in Ohio, in my opinion,” Husted said. “But, we had to make sure it worked from a logistics point of view, that we could handle it, that we had the proper teams. We’re not experts in domestic violence; we can’t have somebody just calling our office and doing this. We need to work with other partners to make sure, assessing the situation to make sure it’s legitimate, first of all. If it is, hopefully connecting those – young women, in most cases – to services that they need to help them with other aspects in their life that might be made all the harder because of the threat of violence in their lives.”

Husted said victims of crimes such as domestic violence and human trafficking are often afraid to vote because abusers or perpetrators could be able to find them through publicly available information, such as voter registration. He explained that the initiative would help shield the voter by allowing them to establish a confidential post office box within the Secretary of State’s office. Anyone who is a part of the program can use that PO Box address to register with a company or government agency and mail received at that location would be forwarded to their home address.

There would not be thousands of people joining the program, Husted believed, but for a few handful or a few hundred, a simple PO Box may be one additional step to help protecting the victims of violence.

The initiative would be paid for by fees leveled against the perpetrators in court; the victims would suffer no additional cost.

The Safe at Home initiative legislation has already passed through the House of Representatives as House Bill 359. That bill, along with Senate Bill 222, are both pending in the Senate.

“We’ve been joined by prosecutors around the state to help us advocate for this legislation,” Husted said. “We don’t think people should have to sacrifice their personal safety to exercise their personal liberty. We want to make sure we are doing our best to make democracy and voting accessible to everybody. This is just one more way we’re doing that.”

“I think that this is very important,” Crall added. “Having worked in the prosecutor’s office, it’s very important to empower them (the victims), to feel that they have control over their lives. I think that this is one step. If you can’t participate in the system, how are you going to take over power in your own life?”

Crall believed this would help victims of violence not just in taking the next step in re-establishing their lives and preparing to vote, but to also overcome concerns of safety.

Should the Safe at Home program pass, victims would be able to contact local prosecutor’s offices or other domestic violence shelters. From there, the individual would be sent to certified domestic violence counselors to determine if they qualify for the program. Husted pointed out, however, that the program is designed for someone who has already taken steps to remove themselves from the violent situation.

The Safe at Home program was modeled after similar legislation in other states. Currently, 38 states have some type of the Safe at Home program in effect. A similar program, called Shield Our Protectors, is also offered for law enforcement within the state of Ohio.