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A review of sample ballots available online from the other 49 states didn’t show any that included home addresses.
In the wake of the targeted attacks against state lawmakers in Minnesota, some local leaders in Massachusetts are working to get home addresses off of the ballot seen by voters, and, in some cases, nonresidents online.
Former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot in their northern Minneapolis suburban home earlier this month. The alleged shooter Vince Boelter, who was arrested days after the murders, also shot Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, who lived a few miles away, police said.
Boelter was found with notebooks with names, addresses, and plans to find addresses of his victims, the Associated Press reported.
Massachusetts state Rep. Jacob Oliveira is now sponsoring a bill to remove addresses from election ballots. In Massachusetts, some previous and current sample ballots can be found online with home addresses for all candidates, including town meeting members, town council members, and school committee members as well as less public figures like municipal gas & light commissioners and library trustees.
The proposed text for the bill would remove the “street and number, if any, of his residence” and replace it with just “the city or town for candidates for state office, or the ward, precinct or district for candidates for local office.”
Oliveira spoke to the Globe about his own safety concerns and his bill, which was referred last week to the Joint Committee on Election Laws. Oliveira serves as the senate vice chair on the committee.
“We don’t have drivers, we don’t have security details,” Oliveira said of state lawmakers. “There’s a misnomer in the public that we’re isolated. We go to the grocery store, we go to Home Depot, we go to big box stores. People see us. We’re not in an ivory tower.”
In Massachusetts, the home addresses of candidates for the congressional delegation to state representatives appear near their name. The home addresses of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Lori Trahan, whose home was targeted with a false bomb threat last year, were found on a sample ballot available online Tuesday.
In contrast, a review of sample ballots available online from the other 49 states didn’t show any other ballots that include home addresses.
Since the attacks, safety personnel in New Hampshire temporarily unpublished online personal information about state lawmakers, The Boston Globe reported.
Oliveira declined to comment on this story, citing safety concerns.
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