A national crime victims advocacy group that favors criminal justice reform is mounting a get-out-the-vote campaign targeting 100,000 crime survivors in states critical in the 2022 midterm elections, the New York Times reports. Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, an affiliate of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, says it wants to motivate people who have not voted in the past. “We don’t want legislators creating laws for us without including our voices,” said Priscilla Bordayo, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and the Michigan manager of the crime survivors’ group, which is nonprofit. “We know best what we want and what we need in order to heal.”
The effort — part of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar push by the group to increase turnout — will be national but will focus primarily on a subset of states, including Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, where there are competitive elections and the group has existing infrastructure. Its organizing will include town-hall-style events, voter education and practical help with tasks like registration. Members of the group have lobbied legislators to fund trauma recovery centers and community-based violence intervention and to increase victim services. In some places, they have also promoted health care and housing assistance in an effort to address the social and economic instability that can lead to crime.