Trudy Oliver

February 20, 2007

Under legislation proposed by the West Virginia Secretary of State, victims of domestic violence would be able to avoid using their residential address for necessary business. Their location would not be revealed through a public record, Trudy Oliver told Putnam Rotarians today.

Oliver, a field representative of the Secretary's office, said information such as voter registration which now reveals a person's home location would be handled so as to keep such information confidential.

Victims of domestic violence, said Oliver, would use an address set up by the Secretary of State instead of their home address. The office would then forward mail to the actual address.

Participants would complete an application process in order to qualify for the progrtam.

Employees who administer the address confidentiality program would be subject to a criminal background check. Successful applicants would certified as participants in the program for a period of four years.

The address confidentiality program initiative is endorsed and supported by the West Virginia Women's Caucus.

Oliver reviewed the progress in recognition of voting rights, including the 26th Amendment (1971) which set the age to vote at 18 years. The amendment was introduced by West Virginia's own Sen. Jennings Randolph.

Change comes about slowly, Oliver said. From the suffrage convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, over 70 years passed before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.

In the meantime, race was removed as a bar to voting rights and the first woman was seated in Congress. Jeanette Rankin was elected to the House of Representatives in 1917, three years before the suffrage amendment had been ratified. Her home state of Montana opened its voting places to women in 1914.