People Lying About Who They Will Vote for in the 2024 Election Are Sharing Their Reasons, and It’s a Multi-Layered Issue

While he was pushing for the Democratic presidential nominee earlier this week. Kamala Harris Former Republican Rep. from suburban Detroit. Liz Cheney Harris made her case to suburban Republican and independent women.

At one point she assured them that no one, not your husband or your family, would know who you voted for.

“If you’re concerned, you can vote your conscience and you won’t have to say a word to anyone.” Cheney said Sitting side by side with Harris. “And there will be millions of Republicans who will do that on November 5.”

That’s right: Whether you vote or not is public record, but How whether you vote in local, state or national elections is kept secret; there is There is no official way to investigate how someone voted.

This election cycle is so heated and hyper-partisan that some people say they plan to do what Cheney suggested: Hide from their spouses and families who they actually voted for.

Of course, in worst-case scenarios, there are people in controlling or abusive relationships who have serious fears about how their partners will react if they vote for candidate A instead of preferred candidate B.

But most people we spoke to for this story said they voted their conscience while keeping it a secret or, in some cases, outright lying, just to avoid awkward or tense conversations in mixed political marriages or families.

That’s also true for Avery, a 30-year-old veteran from east Florida who voted for Harris instead of Trump this time. (Like others in this article, Avery asked that her name be used only to protect her privacy.)

“As a veteran, I deeply resent the insurrection he incited on January 6,” he said. “And with (Harris) and Tim WalzI think they are respectable, intelligent people and I agree with their policies. “When I watch their speech, I am not ashamed for our country.”

But to avoid unnecessary family drama, she won’t let her husband or his pro-Trump immigrant family know about her voting plans.

“My husband would probably roll his eyes if he knew I voted for Harris,” Avery said. “But the rest will probably come up with some stupid conspiracy theory and try to change my mind.”

It’s similar to Cheney’s advice to others in the same situation: Do what you think is best for you and your family, and be confident in making that choice.

“No one, regardless of their relationship with you, has the right to tell you who to vote for,” Avery said. “If you are a woman with an abusive or controlling husband, do what you have to do to vote for the candidate you want. “No one needs to know who he is.”

Sultan Aziz Mirza He also secretly votes for Harris, but his circumstances are very different.

“My wife is anti-Kamala because of all this. Palestine genocide is going on, and he made that the only thing he voted for,” she told HuffPost before saying she understood where her husband was coming from.

“I would love to see the single issue (Palestinian rights and the war in Gaza) determine the vote, but I realize that’s not the case,” said Mirza, who lives in a suburb just south of Washington, D.C., “and this Opposition is not exactly pro-Palestinian, so “Harris has my support, but I would love to see some pro-PAL support from her, too.”

Mirza thinks his wife probably won’t vote, and he knows his Muslim family and circle of friends are equally conflicted.

“Most of our friends are Muslims and they only see dead Palestinians and put the blame entirely on Biden/Harris for this situation that has been going on for decades,” he said. “It’s a very complex topic, but when we’re together there are definitely arguments.”

Robby, a 34-year-old from Los Angeles, asked: “Wait, who are you voting for?” He said that he got rid of strange situations such as: He chats with his wife thanks to living in deep blue California.

“I’m pretty sure I would vote for Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver, but if we were in a swing state and (I) felt like my vote counted, I really don’t know what I would do,” he said. he told HuffPost.

Robby sides with Harris on social issues but is more aligned with Trump financially. His wife is adamant about her vote for Harris.

“If I were to actually vote for Trump, and I know I wouldn’t condemn anyone, if I told my wife I voted for him she would be mad at me,” he said.

Justin, a 29-year-old from the Pacific Northwest, is quietly voting for Harris “primarily because she’s not Trump.”

Justin describes himself as an independent (although he tends to vote Democrat), and to keep the peace he tells his conservative grandparents and parents that he is an independent, or just “whether he votes or not.”

If his family starts yelling about the candidate he secretly voted for, he usually joins in. After all, he said: “Most of the time we don’t have very good candidates, so it’s easy to complain about either candidate.”

The only time Justin has openly lied about his vote choice is when he lied to his left-leaning friends on the few occasions he voted Republican. They’d be surprised to hear this, because Justin says he’s bisexual, “a flamboyant, tree-hugging guy who supports women’s reproductive rights and hates overfunding the military (and) tends to vote Democrat.”

“I usually vote like (my friends), but the way they talk about people who vote Republican makes me feel so bad, and they’ve made it clear they wouldn’t be friends with anyone who votes Republican,” he said. HuffPost.

James, 23, of Southern Michigan, also doesn’t tell his Republican family who he’s voting for, especially his parents, who voted for Trump as they did in the last two elections.

“We haven’t had a direct conversation about it this year, but I think they’re assuming I’ll vote for Trump, too,” he said. “They said things like, ‘We need every vote for Trump,’ and I think they would be upset if they knew I wasn’t.”

If the issue came up directly, James said he would lie and say he elected Trump just to avoid conflict.

The question on everyone’s mind: Can “secret” Trump or Harris voters decide the election?

After the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, especially in 2016, post election speech It’s about the segment of voters who are uncomfortable admitting they previously voted for Trump.

A mail-2016 study A researcher from Columbia Business School found that Trump won a majority of “closet” voters when faced off. Hillary Clinton. “Hidden” Trump voters outnumbered those who concealed their support for Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin.

Robert C. Cahaly, a pollster and strategist at the conservative-leaning Trafalgar Group, thinks people are underestimating support for Trump this time around, too.

“We already measured a significant amount of secret Trump votes this year, but the rationale has changed,” he said. “This time, it’s less about being shy and more about fear of being targeted based on their response. They fear data collection, retribution, or cancellation if their names are listed as Trump supporters.”

In therapy offices in Manhattan and DC, Jonathan Alpert He said he sees many shy or reserved Trump voters who keep their votes close to their chest because they don’t want to be judged.

“One patient told me that everyone in her cooking class assumed she was a liberal and hated Trump,” Alpert told HuffPost. “Actually, he’s not a liberal and he doesn’t hate Trump. “She supports him but sits quietly while the rest of the class yells about Trump.”

“I’ve heard a lot of similar stories like this over the last few months,” he said.

The psychotherapist has never heard a client say they were secret Harris supporters, yet she works in two very liberal urban centers.

Sam Wang, a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University and director of the research center, said there are probably just as many secret Harris voters we are not hearing about. Election Innovation LabA policy and research group that uses statistics, science, and law to analyze election systems.

Wang noted: gender difference largest recorded this year: A Survey published by USA Today and Suffolk University On Monday, it was revealed that Trump leads Harris among men nationally by 16%. Harris has a nearly identical lead among female voters, who support Democrats at 17%.

“The obvious reason for this difference is reproductive rights, because dobbs Wang said this decision was a Supreme Court decision made by Republican-appointed justices, and most Republican lawmakers are open to a nationwide abortion ban.

online, many don’t worry if it is secret Harris voters More people are married to MAGA partners than we think. What does Wang think?

“Any household that has both men and women in it has a greater chance than ever of having conflicting party preferences,” he said. “Liz Cheney is right that it might be better for men and women to keep their votes secret.”

As for whether secret voters (for Trump or Harris) will make a difference on November 5, “the election looks pretty close right now, every vote could make a difference.”This article was first published on: HuffPost.