As Election Day approaches, married women across America are asking: Can my husband find out who I voted for? At least, that’s the bet that some Kamala Harris supporters are making, which is why they are reminding women that no one, not even your Trump-supporting spouse, has to know who you vote for.
The secret ballot has been around since the late 1800s, according to NPR, and is considered a cornerstone of democracy. That means that the only way someone else could find out how you voted is if you tell them yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re married, or even if you’re officially registered to a different political party.
Polling data shows that Harris has much stronger support from women than Trump does, which means that at least some heterosexual married households will be split when it comes to the voting booth. Some groups, like the progressive evangelical group Vote Common Good, have released campaign initiatives to assure women that they don’t have to tell their husbands if they vote for Harris instead of Trump.
One ad from the group, narrated by Julia Roberts, depicts a married couple entering a polling place together. As the wife enters the voting booth, she locks eyes with another woman standing across from her, and votes for the Harris-Walz ticket. Roberts, over voice-over, says, “In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know.” The implication is that the husband expects his wife to vote for Trump, like him, and she declines to tell him otherwise.
There is also a guerrilla campaign going on, per Ms. Magazine, in which women leave post-it notes in public spaces like women’s restrooms, with notes reminding women that their vote is secret. “Woman to woman, your vote is private,” reads one example.
