Voting Safely in the 2020 Election

This year has proven to be a year like none other. The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every facet of our lives and survivors have faced unprecedented hurdles. Participation in the 2020 general election will be no different. 

Voting is a fundamental right and civic participation is an essential key to maintaining the health of a democracy. At the same time, it is crucial that barriers to voting are eliminated and safety and privacy are always ensured. There are many things for survivors to consider. These range from figuring out how to juggle work and child care,  to protecting their health when casting a ballot in person , to safety plan so that they are able to cast their ballot without the abuser escalating their behaviors,  and to understanding voting requirements in their state or territory and how those processes may impact their privacy and safety.

Voter registration privacy (or the lack thereof) differs across states and territories. Some allow people to check their voter registration status online, which sometimes includes their current address. (A list of state-specific links to check your voter status can be accessed at vote.org – you can look up your registration without sharing your personal information with the vote.org website, just keep scrolling down past the welcome and you’ll see a list of specific states. You can use this tool to check that you’re registered correctly, and you can also use it to see what someone else could learn about you if they know some of your basic information already.)

For many survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or trafficking, privacy is inextricably connected to safety. Physical safety, emotional safety, economic safety; the list goes on. And it’s important to remember that privacy can be just as important to survivors who are still connected to their abuser as it is for those who have successfully fled.

With all this in mind, we have updated our Voting & Survivor Privacy resource that takes a deeper dive into the topics above, including information about voter registration privacy, online voter registration, automatic voter registration, and a new section on voting safely and privately. Read through the resource and share it with survivors in your life, so they can get out and vote in the upcoming election and beyond!

2020 US Census: Considerations for Survivors of Domestic Violence

This month, the US Census Bureau, a nonpartisan government agency, is mailing forms to all households across the country, as they work to collect demographic data on everyone residing in the United States. The count is mandated by the US Constitution and is conducted every 10 years. The 2020 Census counts the population in the United States and five U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each home will receive an invitation to respond to a short questionnaire—online, by phone, or by mail—between March 12-20.

Providing private information about where you live and who you live with can prompt concerns about privacy and safety for survivors of domestic violence. This is especially true for those who’ve left their abuser and are living in a shelter, those who have relocated to a new home and are working to keep their address private, and those who have enrolled in state address confidentiality programs.

We’re happy to announce the release of a new resource crafted for survivors and victim advocates, 2020 US Census: Considerations for Survivors, that provides important information related to the US Census and key safety and privacy considerations for survivors of domestic violence. Please check it out and feel free to reach out to us with any related questions!

Follow the embedded link to read the Census Bureau Statement on Coronavirus and the 2020 Census. Stay up to date on the US Census Bureau’s response to COVID-19 by checking their Newsroom

Keeping Survivors in the Driver’s Seat: Our Focus on Confidentiality

As professionals and experts in the field, advocates go to work every day helping survivors reclaim their lives. But it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day rush of the work, and sometimes we forget that we aren’t the driver of this journey - we’re just passengers along for the ride. When we get off track, we start to think a survivor should automatically give us the information we ask for, that they should trust us to collect and share their information as we see fit because we’re experts and we know what’s best. But we have to put the brakes on that thinking, and remember that survivors are the experts of their own experience. It’s our job to help educate them about their options, and the potential impacts and outcomes of their choices, so that they can make an informed decision. When we do this, we’re giving them the keys, ensuring they’re the ones who are in control and driving the bus,* and that we’re doing our job by helping them navigate!

Safety Net kept very busy over the summer and early fall of 2019, working to help organizations across the field improve their understanding and practice of confidentiality. To help agencies ensure they’re providing survivor-driven services and developing policies that support a survivor’s right to privacy, we hosted four national webinars, facilitated a listening session for state and territorial coalitions on mandated reporting, launched new materials, and held an outstanding two-day conference– Strictly Confidential: Protecting Survivor Privacy in Federally Funded Programs.  

Summer 2019 Highlights

Webinars:
For anyone who missed the webinars, and for those who’d like to revisit them, you can check them out using the links below:  

• Fundamentals & Framework: Understanding Confidentiality & Our Obligations

• Data Breach Notifications & Survivor Confidentiality

• Survivor Data: Collection, Retention & Deletion Best Practices

• Official Demands for Information: Subpoenas, Warrants, Court Orders, Auditors & Monitors

Resources:
Newly-created materials, which were all added to our Confidentiality Toolkit, include:

• Data Breaches & Victim Service Providers: Considerations for Developing Effective Policies

• VAWA Grant Conditions, Victim Privacy, and Effective Oversight Procedures

• Summary of U.S. State and Territorial Laws Related to Advocate Confidentiality & Privilege

National Conference:
The 2019 Strictly Confidentiality conference was in such high demand that we had to make a wait list and get creative with seat set-up! We loved seeing everyone so interested and engaged in wanting to learn more about survivor-centered best practices. Advocates, attorneys, court officials, and others came from across the country to learn more about how they can ensure they’re providing survivor-driven services. The conference content was designed to help advocates navigate complex federal confidentiality obligations, through in-depth analysis, peer sharing, and scenario problem solving. Participants explored the many layers of privacy, confidentiality obligations, and their intersections with technology in a tangible way. Topics included:

• Understanding and applying legal confidentiality obligations

• Navigating the mandated reporting and confidentiality overlap

• Building community collaborations while maintaining confidentiality

• Upholding confidentiality in emergency situations

• Navigating language access and confidentiality

• Handling official third party demands for survivor information

• Selecting and using databases

• Implementing best practices for agency use of technology

• Minimizing risk via intakes and data retention policies

• Understanding data breach notification laws

• Ensuring valid releases of information.

We hope all this new content is helpful to service providers and we look forward to hearing your feedback so we can continue to improve this work. We’re also grateful to our grant partners at Danu Center’s Confidentiality Institute, to our funders at the Office on Violence Against Women, and to the advocates who are out there doing this work every day. When we provide services based on confidentiality best practices, we’re helping survivors understand they have a right to privacy, that they remain in control of that privacy, and they can make the decisions that work best for them.

*The “survivor drives the bus” phrase was coined by our grant partner, Alicia Aiken, Director of Danu Center’s Confidentiality Institute :)