Just over a hundred years ago, women finally secured the right to vote–extending political autonomy not just to men, but everyone. Universal suffrage in the United States marked an important milestone in American history by establishing legal merit toward gender equality. While women have since gained more independence and opportunity (e.g. obtaining degrees in higher education, assuming managerial positions, and garnering political influence), there continue to be many roadblocks to true gender equality and freedom. Further litigation that would constitutionally protect gender equality has been repeatedly shot down in US legislatures: the right to abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade, demolished; contest from conservative ideology, constant; restrictions on voting autonomy, imposed.
However, it is not policy that restricts women’s votes, but something more personal–their families. The founder of Fresh Starts Registry, an organization that provides resources to women leaving their marriages, recently posted a thread on X detailing the influx of the question: “can my husband find out who I am voting for in the Presidential Election?” Reaching eight million views, this thread sparked a much-needed discussion on the autonomy of female voters. Hundreds of replies showcased the frequency of the issue: “As a poll worker, I have had to deal with husbands and fathers who want to join their wives or daughters in the voting booth to ‘make sure they vote the right way,’” user Jonathan Nori replied. Other voters detailed their experiences at the polling stations; Marian D. Moore shared, “During the last presidential election, I saw a husband try to stand behind his wife as she voted. The officials restrained him and it took some effort.” Another user stated, “Working the elections, I am always shocked that so many men stand over a woman’s shoulder telling her who to vote for.” User Todd Shaffer, self-incriminatingly, even replied “I just grab my wife’s (and adult kids) ballot and fill it out before she even sees it. What ballot? I suggest all men do this. Thank God for mail-in ballots!!!” Dozens of other tweets emulate similar messages–it is unfortunately a prevalent yet overlooked issue that men control, or attempt to control, their wives’ ballots.
Political canvassers have reported similar instances of controlling husbands, detailing incidents where men speak on behalf of the wives when it is clear the wife is registered for a separate party. A canvasser for Senate candidate Beto O’Rouke described an occurrence in which a husband menacingly stood behind his wife at the door and yelled for the canvasser to leave while the wife silently mouthed “I support Beto” before rapidly shutting the door. One story goes as follows: “I asked the woman who answered the door if she had a plan for voting, and a man appeared, behind her, and said, quite brusquely, ‘I’m a Republican’. Before I could reply, he shut the door in my face.” In another instance, a text-banker shared that “a woman I texted in Michigan told me, ‘I am not allowed’ to vote for the candidate.” Not only is this type of behavior misogynistic and abusive, but it’s also illegal. Women are continually being silenced by their partners, an issue that extends beyond domestic violence into voting rights.
The controlling behavior of these men has troubling political implications: chiefly, the normalization of political intimidation within the family, and subsequent suppression of the female voting demographic. While many women decide to vote for Trump on their own accord, the numerous stories reported by victims, political workers, and offenders themselves present a worrying trend. Voter intimidation within the household is an unspoken and under-discussed topic, commonly only thought of against poll workers or via social media. Yet today, the countless accounts of women being coerced into voting by their husbands bring to light an oft-overlooked means of voter suppression. While women a hundred years ago fought relentlessly for the right to vote, women today, especially women of color, continue to face barriers in exercising the Nineteenth Amendment.
Permitting political coercion in the household is a troubling precedent to have set, creating a tangible threat to democracy. The United States is unable to call itself a true democracy so long as voters’ rights are not being protected. While policing the household is a difficult and risky task, there are alternatives that municipal governments can take to ensure that women can autonomously vote. Aside from funding institutions that provide women resources on how to handle and identify instances of domestic abuse, the government has the onus of addressing intra-relation voter intimidation in protecting its democracy. Liberation begins with education – by investing in educational programs that promote education for voters, and help identify instances of voter intimidation, municipalities can ensure their constituents are well-informed and feel safe to vote independent of coercion. The education system plays an important role in teaching young individuals skills they will carry on throughout their lives. Courses on civic engagement, which can educate students on how to make informed political decisions, would address issues like voter intimidation from the bottom up. Young kids can also gain a basic understanding of how to recognize and confront the varying types of interpersonal abuse, instilling the confidence and tools needed to tackle real-life problems and keep themselves safe. By educating young people on abuse and voter suppression, individuals will have an easier time identifying an instance preemptively throughout their lifetime. Requiring schools to implement curricula that teach kids the interpersonal skills to address abuse and become civically engaged is a necessity for the future. This would not only address the problem of political coercion in personal relationships but also produce a new generation of politically informed self-advocates.
Featured Image: CNN Politics
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