Opinion : To the Editor: How a 'Safe at Home' program could help domestic assault victims

It has come to my attention, through a former student of mine, that a segment of Iowa's population may not be able to participate in the electoral process here because our state lacks a safeguard for the privacy rights of victims of domestic violence. Secretary of State Candidate Brad Anderson is proposing a solution to this problem which I believe merits consideration and implementation.

In researching this issue, I discovered through the state's "Uniform Crime Report" that Iowa, in the time period from 2000-2009, averaged about 7,000 reported victims of domestic violence per year (http://www.dps.state.ia.us/commis/ucr/2009/iacrime.shtml). The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, however, states that in 2010 over 24,000 Iowans sought relief from domestic violence through their services (http://media.wix.com/ugd/88018b_053f0e7a5b2580ab913c9f2a7f07e342.pdf) and that this number is consistent from the years 2008-2010. The enormous discrepancy between the state's numbers and the ICADV's numbers can be explained--almost 17,000 Iowans, likely to be women, sought help for their situation but eventually did not choose to pursue criminal charges against their abuser. It is likely that fear of some sort played a role in many of these choices to not press charges. These are citizens that deserve help, security, and the protection of their lives and property. I believe Candidate Anderson's plan can help them.

Anderson’s plan is called "Safe at Home." The program is designed to keep the home address of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors confidential. The program assigns participants a PO Box administered securely by the Secretary of State’s office; this PO Box can then be used by the recipient on government or employment forms instead of their "formal" address, helping them maintain privacy and security. Iowa does not currently have a program such as this and as a result some state forms--voter registration included--require a person to disclose their address; this can have tragic results if the wrong person acquires this information.

In researching Paul Pate's position on this issue, I can find no information.

I believe Mr. Anderson's proposal to be reasonable, necessary, and overdue. I ask other citizens to consider it, and to consider voting for Brad Anderson for Secretary of State.