The Minnesota secretary of state’s office is known for elections. Voter registration. Election security.
Less well known is another function administered by the office: The Safe at Home program, an address confidentiality program created in 2007 for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. When someone is enrolled, the program assigns those who enroll a P.O. box that they can use as their legal address.
While 37 other states have established similar address confidentiality programs, some federal agencies refuse to acknowledge Safe at Home P.O. boxes. That inconsistency prompted Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon to work with Rep. Betty McCollum, of Minnesota’s Fourth District, to create a federal Safe at Home Act, a bipartisan bill and joint effort with officials in Missouri that would standardize how federal agencies deal with Safe at Home mailboxes.
View the complete October 23 article by Gabe Schneider on the MinnPost website here.