Your voice is a secret: NPR

A person casts a mail-in ballot in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on October 15. An unknown number of women are hiding their choice of Vice President Harris from family and partners in an election that is expected to see a historic gender divide.

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In political ads and campaign speeches, supporters of Vice President Harris have a message for Republican women: Your vote is private and no one will know if you secretly vote for Harris.

“Nobody knows how you’re going to vote,” Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin said during a campaign stop in Michigan last week. “No one is allowed to check it. It is not available online. Right? Your vote is your choice. You don't have to tell anyone.” Slotkin, who is running for Senate, battled with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who has also crossed the aisle to support Harris.

Her message is aimed at conservative women like T, whom we call by her first letter. T, who is in her 60s and lives in Wisconsin, requested anonymity to discuss how living in a politically divided household affects her marriage of more than 40 years.

“He is frustrated that I don’t listen to him when he argues his case. “I can’t and I won’t,” she explained.

T says she mailed her mail-in ballot from another family member's house to avoid a confrontation with her husband over her support for Harris.

“It's not that he would ever stop me or anything, it's just that I just can't handle the hostility,” she said with an audible sigh.

Be silent

T says she voted Republican her entire adult life — until Trump became the nominee in 2016. She describes Trump as “misogynistic” and “nonsense.”

“My husband will say it's exactly what the media gave me,” said T. “And I'll say uh-uh. I saw it with my own eyes. I listened to it.”

One of those moments, when Trump held up a Bible outside a church near the White House after calling police to break up a protest in 2020, was also a breaking point for another woman, K.

“I was horrified. That was actually when I left the Republican Party,” says K. She lives in a red state in the Midwest and asked that we use her initials for fear of losing her job.

K says she didn't tell most of her family members, including her husband, that she was voting for Harris.

“He assumes I vote Republican. I just listen to him talk about his views and I just nod my head and say, “Um,” she said. “And I think, yes, and my nieces have less physical autonomy and rights at their age than I do.”

Avoid conflicts

Jackie Payne is the executive director of Galvanize Action, which focuses on supporting white women on progressive issues. Due to the Gender difference When it comes to voting behavior, she says it's not unusual for women to keep their political opinions to themselves.

“If there is a conflict at home, it can be very disturbing. And one of the things we often hear from moderate white women is that they really hate conflict and try to avoid it at all costs,” Payne explained. “For many moderate white women, this looks like disengaging from political conversations. Therefore, they will withdraw from the conversation to avoid the conflict.”

The idea that women can secretly vote for Harris without their husbands knowing is being repeated in new ads from anti-Trump groups, including the Lincoln Project and vote for the common good.

The ads sparked opposition from conservative commentators. On the Megyn Kelly ShowCharlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, a think tank focused on promoting conservative values ​​among young voters, said that women who vote secretly are “undermining their husbands,” and described one of the ads as “the embodiment of the downfall of American politics.” Family”.

Shy voters

But the desire to keep a vote private is not new, says Eduardo Gamarra, a political scientist at Florida International University.

“People are afraid to express who they will vote for, especially in close elections,” said Gamarra, who is also a pollster focusing on Latino voters.

Gamarra says political scientists have talked about timid Trump voters in the past. But this time, Gamarra says he's seeing women indicating in focus groups that they tacitly support Harris.

“I think we're seeing a similar phenomenon today, and it's largely caused by abortion,” he suggested.

A, who is 35 and lives in Illinois, asked that we use only her initial because she fears backlash from her religious community.

She says she voted for Trump in the last two elections, but after a period of soul-searching, decided to vote for Harris this time. She says she “hesitated” whether she should vote at all, in part for fear of criticism if anyone close to her found out how she voted.

A says she is keeping her vote secret from her boyfriend and especially from her father, a staunch Republican. She says she thought about her daughters when making her decision.

“And as I filled in the rectangle, I was like, 'Damn, girl.' You have done something so powerful for yourself and for many women,” she said.

It's impossible to know how many people – especially women – are secretly voting for Harris. This election is expected to see a historic gender divide, with polls suggesting that women and men are deeply divided over which presidential candidate they should vote for.

That's why even a small number of silent voters could have a big impact one way or the other on Tuesday's outcome.