Like a record number of others in the United States this year, Maggie, 27, will send her poll to vote in the 2020 presidential election. However, if any, this does not preclude possible exposure to COVID-19. yourself from your attacker.
Maggie (whose call was replaced to protect her anonymity) escaped an abusive date in 2018. Since then, he blocked his attacker on social media and email, replaced his phone number and moved twice, once out of state. to make his new deal confidential, he told Health.
But voting in the 2020 election can still put Maggie at risk. To register to vote in the United States, you will need to provide a non-public backup and other identifying information. In Tennessee, where Maggie has been living lately, the maximum local number or state government records, adding voter registration, are considered public and must be had for public review. Conference on State Legislators, and these public records offer perpetrators the opportunity to locate their victims.
RELATED: Election 2020: where Trump and Biden are over COVID-19, reproductive rights and fitness issues
Approximately one in 4 have experienced sexual violence, physical violence and/or harassment through an intimate spouse at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (recent closures of COVID-19 have led to a global projection of domestic violence).
For women who are going to escape a domestic violence scenario, like Maggie, registering to vote means their terrible experience isn’t over. “The maximum damage time for other people leaving a domestic violence scenario is right after they leave,” Ruth Glenn said. President and CEO of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) at Health. “That’s when you’re likely to see the criminal harassment habit build up, and the more they accumulate, the more fatal it can become. “
One in six women has been harassed in her life, the National Survey of Intimate Couples and Sexual Violence (NISVS) reports. For many of these women, protecting their non-public data is a matter of survival. In Maggie’s case, the violent crime of strangulation – “which put me in an excessive threat of being harassed or worse,” she says. “That’s why I broke all the ties and moved twice. “
Survivors of domestic violence have few characteristics to keep their face private. “If a survivor has discovered security and wants to keep their face out of the public eye, their only genuine option is to participate in what’s called a privacy coping program,” Glenn says.
RELATED: ‘Electoral tension disorder’ is a genuine thing: how to know you have it
“Address privacy systems are administered through state governments and allow some Americans to use a government-administered replacement layer in public records and maintain their true unralosing physical layer,” Corbin Streett, a generation security specialist for the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), says Health. Eligibility protections and needs vary from state to state.
They are not witness coverage programs; rather, they allow victims of certain crimes to have their mail and public records redirected to some other front, keeping their real front unra unveiled. ACP programs, as they are called, are not a component of a national effort; in fact, there hasn’t been a federal program lately to deal with privacy, Streett says.
“In recent legislative sessions, an invoice has circulated in Congress, called the Home Security Act, which seeks to require federal agencies to accept replacement addresses provided through state privacy systems rather than require the individual to disclose their confidential address,” Streett says. This can be incredibly helpful for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking when they have to interact with federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State Department to apply for benefits and identity documents. , among other things. “
Maggie uses the Tennessee Safe at Home privacy program to address privacy. All your mail goes through a replacement layer before being transferred to your actual home, and you can provide the replacement layer to all government entities (including voting) in Tennessee. “It is highly unlikely that my ex will locate me at this point, but it is a precaution that makes me feel more secure,” she says. “I will be on this program for life. “
RELATED: 10 for anxiety relief used by fitness editors before the election
However, not all ACP programs ensure that a confrontation will remain a confidential vote, according to a table of state-level confrontational confidentiality legislation compiled through the NNEDV. “The most demanding situations actually arise from the fact that so many corporations collect and sell non-public data in tactics that are not transparent to other people whose knowledge is bought and sold,” Streett says. “These knowledge collection systems are built in such a way that they automatically assume that the user needs their knowledge to be collected, shared or sold, without any apparent sign to the user whose data is being collected. “
If a survivor enrolls in an ACP program or similar program, continues, “then goes to the store and fills out a discount card application with their actual forehead, or has to give it to a moving company and not read it completely the privacy policy, that data is then sold to knowledge agents and deal with leaks in a way that the ACP cannot protect”.
Glenn says it more succinctly: “Unless you’re on an FBI witness coverage program, nothing is foolproof. “
Therefore, voting remains a precarious scenario for survivors. Some, like Maggie, feel confident in voting as part of a privacy coping program. Others, like Jennifer, 19, are confident that these organizations can protect them, despite their panicked when she found out how she coped in public voting books a few months ago.
Jennifer (whose call was also replaced to protect her anonymity) was physically and sexually assaulted through her father, who lost custody after reporting it in 2017, replaced her phone number and SIM card and broke ties to her family appearance. “I was worried she’d come and reach me, because she’s not stable,” she told Health. “We moved, and I was like, he still doesn’t know where I live, but now I know. I can only look for that data and it makes me suspicious. “She is registered under her non-public dealings, but recently stayed in a separate shelter with her family.
RELATED: Trump vs. Trump Biden: your positions on Social Security, Medicare and other problems for older Americans
In Michigan, where Jennifer lives, privacy laws cannot be addressed. But even if there were, “I’m in a position where I no longer accept as faithful to the law the kind of shield that I myself,” he says. at this point, I’m just going to vote, and what happens after that scares me every day. “
Streett recommends that survivors with privacy issues use the World Privacy Forum’s Data Broker Exclusion List to help prevent the sale of their private data. “It is also a smart concept to search for your name, address, phone number, email address, etc. see what data you’re going to have online,” he says, but he wants to touch each site separately to delete a record, unless he’s working with a company like Safe Shepherd, he adds.
When it comes to this specific choice, it is imperative to weigh its features to stay safe. “If there is a survivor who would really like to vote and has questions in her brain about her protection, whether she is connected to the user who commits violence or because she is gone and afraid to reveal her scenario, the recommendation would be that she touch the parent of her network’s domestic violence program, which can help her expand a protection plan. Glenn says. “And this plan would possibly resolve that your security threat is too high. Even if voting is a right, it is not a value: we need you alive ».
In the future, advocates are calling for less difficult tactics for survivors to participate in elections that do not compromise their protection and privacy. “We expect all states and territories to create protections for those whose privacy is inextricably connected to their security, so they don’t have to be between risking their lives and voting,” Streett says.
Jennifer agrees. “I am passionate about more privacy programs available. It’s not fair: my attacker can vote safely, and I can’t?” She said. So it’s especially vital for other people like me to have simple access to anything that won’t turn up the power when we’re already wondering if we’re going to be safe at night. “
To get our stories in your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter