Last week, Vote Common Good released a political advertisement on YouTube. The ad centered around ballot privacy, specifically regarding women, has faced heavy backlash since its release. The ad portrayed women casting their vote at a poll location, sharing a smile as they filled in the circle for Kamala Harris.
The video begins with a woman walking into a voting location with her husband. After looking around nervously, she makes eye contact with another woman while the narrator states the setting with the double entendre, “the one place in America where women still have a right to choose.” The women smile and mark Harris as their choice. Julia Roberts, the narrator says “no one will ever know,” and the husband returns to the screen to ask if she made the right choice. “Sure did honey,” she says with a smile. The narrator closes out, “What happens in the booth, stays in the booth.”
The ad is half a minute long, but those 30 seconds set off a series of fiery reactions from conservative figures.
Republican men, including Donald Trump, have taken this ad as a personal attack. “I’m so disappointed [in] Julia Roberts. She’s going to look back on that and she’s going to cringe,” states Trump. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shared on The Megyn Kelly Show, “[Kamala] needs people to basically lie to their husbands, which they are promoting, by the way. It is the embodiment of the downfall of the American family. I think it’s so gross.” The same video showed Jesse Watters on Fox News, raving about the ad. “If I found out [my wife] was going into the voting booth and pulling a lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair,” Watters said. “What else is she keeping from me?”
Their reactions are extreme, comparing different political preferences to infidelity and family downfalls and taking personal offense to what the fictional woman is doing in the video. However, they raise the question about the morality of the ad. Is it okay to promote such actions?
While the ad seemingly appears to be pro-women, as it alludes to the reproductive rights Kamala promotes in her campaign, the message supports the notion that women hiding their choices from their conservative husbands is necessary.
Why should anyone have to hide their decision from their significant other? This ad promotes an unhealthy dynamic, and while it is extreme to say that Kamala needs people to lie to their husbands, this video reinforces the idea that they should.
The problem does not lie in how the woman hid her choice but in the context behind why she did. Women should have a right to vote for whoever they want, and keep that private. However, this ad encourages ballot privacy as secrecy, which may seem necessary to some people, like those with controlling families or pressuring spouses. Regardless, this narrative should not be included in political campaigning. Voting privacy must remain protected and respected, but if one has to go as far as to hide it from their loved ones, there is a deeper issue.
Unfortunately, voting does have the potential to cause issues in relationships, and it has become a trend to “cancel out” a partner or family member’s vote. An article published in The Guardian describes a TikTok, “a woman dances to Ciara’s Level Up before driving off to ‘cancel out’ her ‘Trump loving Husband’s vote in a swing state.’” The article then states, “The dozens of women participating are, for the most part, Democrats supporting Kamala Harris’s bid, while their male partners are voting for Donald Trump.” A pro-Kamala voter said to The Cut, “I’ll try every day until November 5 to change his mind, but I also know that he’s a stubborn man. The best I can do is cancel out his vote.”
This ad demonstrates the toxic political environment the U.S. is no stranger to. Political beliefs should not spark family division, or general hatred, aggression and violence, as they have always done. This ad not only strengthens political polarities but also mishandles addressing the harmful nature of many relationships. If a woman has to hide her choice from her husband, or feel that she needs to “cancel out” his vote, she should not be with him in the first place, and vice versa. Kamala should not be using unhealthy relationship dynamics to promote her campaign, even if there is truth to the unfortunate narrative.
