Last month, in a viral post on X (formerly Twitter), the founder of a “divorce registry” company wrote that the question “Can my husband find out who I am voting for in the Presidential Election?” was one she’d been hearing “a lot.”
“There are a number of people that live in households where certain members of their family might have very strong opinions and want people in their household to share those opinions,” said Kim Alexander, the president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. “It’s difficult when it’s somebody who is close to you [like] a family member, trying to pressure you to vote a certain way.”
But as “a voter, you have the right to vote a secret ballot,” Alexander said.
So what can you do if you’re feeling under pressure at home to vote a certain way? How can you successfully hide who you vote for from your partner, parents or roommates — especially if you’re in an abusive domestic situation? Read on to learn more about your rights when it comes to voting and ways you can protect the voting privacy the law entitles you.
Every situation is different, and as such, this guide can’t provide legal advice for your own circumstances. Remember also that advice for people on how to protect their voting privacy is not to suggest there’s some kind of voter fraud epidemic of people’s ballots being used in a way they hadn’t intended.
If you suspect your voting rights are being violated, you can reach out to the secretary of state.
Nobody can find out who you voted for
Your voting record — that is, which candidates you’ve voted for in the past — is never made public and is not findable online anywhere.
What is technically findable online: Your political party preference on your voter registration — i.e., whether you’re registered to vote as a Republican, a Democrat or “no party preference,” also known as an independent voter. (For what it’s worth, unlike the primary elections earlier this year, you can vote for any presidential candidate in the upcoming November general election — not just the candidate with the party you’re registered with.)
Voter registration isn’t available to the general public, but California law allows some of your information — including your party registration and which elections you voted in — to be released to certain people, including political candidates and anyone who will use it for “election, scholarly, journalistic or political purpose or for governmental purposes,” according to the secretary of state.
History fact: From the colonial days to the 1890s, voting was very much a public act. Secret ballots were an idea borrowed from Australia, and since then, Americans “feel very protective of” their votes being private, Alexander said.
In the modern day, Alexander said, nobody should be able to find out how anybody voted — unless the voter made a photocopy of their ballot or showed someone their ballot. (A few years ago, there was a controversy over people taking “ballot selfies,” but that law was changed in California in 2017 to permit such photos.)
In short, the only way someone can find out how you voted in November is if you choose to tell them.
Voting in person may be the safest bet
It’s OK to receive assistance filling out your ballot — whether you are a teen asking for advice about candidates or a parent asking their kid to help translate sentences.
But lines could potentially be crossed into coercion. And if you feel that is your case, Alexander suggested you should try voting in person.
“If you go to vote in person, you have the privacy of the voting booth, and your ballot is absolutely secret,” she said. (People can receive assistance at the polls: For example, the person accompanying the voter may need to complete paperwork to say that the voter has difficulty reading, speaking or writing in English.)
Guidance from the National Network to End Domestic Violence reads people can vote “when their abuser is busy,” bring a friend with them to the polls for support, and talk to a poll worker if they have concerns.
The organization said people should do their candidate research before they vote, so the process itself of filling out their ballot can go as quickly as possible in the moment — and decrease chances of running into someone at the polling station.
You can also vote in person before Election Day. Information about this process will be available on the state’s website closer to November. You can also reach out to your county’s election office to learn more about early voting in person.
Worried about your ballot? You can fill it out and seal it straightaway
If you are in a situation where you are concerned someone is trying to influence how you vote on your mail-in ballot, and voting in person isn’t an option for you, Alexander recommends that you can fill out your mail-in ballot in private and then put it in the envelope straightaway, signing and dating it immediately.
“If somebody in your household wants to find out how you voted, they would have to break a federal law and tamper with your mail,” she said.
Your signature will be verified (so someone else can’t sign it)
Someone cannot — under the penalty of perjury — fill out your ballot, sign your name and turn it in. This is a felony.
What’s more, your signature on your ballot envelope must match the signature you provided when you registered to vote — which is usually the same as the one on your California driver’s license or state ID card.
Your county elections office has a robust system in place to flag ballot envelope signatures that don’t match the signature on record for that voter to make sure they weren’t filled out and signed by someone else. So if your county’s election staff receives your ballot and detects that signature mismatch on your ballot, they’ll reach out to you via mail to verify whether it’s yours or not (also known as “curing” a ballot).
But someone else is allowed to turn in your ballot
If you can’t return your ballot yourself, “you may designate any person to return the ballot to the elections official or the precinct board at any polling place within the jurisdiction,” according to the secretary of state. Alexander pointed out that “you do have to fill out on the ballot your relationship to the voter and sign it if you’re turning in a ballot for someone else.”
“Ballot harvesting” — in which groups collect piles of votes to drop them off — is legal in California. However, the people collecting the ballots cannot force you to vote in any way. If this person is part of the same organization or party as you — and you feel uncomfortable — you can also ask to turn it in yourself.
California’s ‘Safe At Home’ program can keep your voter registration private
While the contents of your vote are private, your voter registration information may not be — which is a recurring concern for survivors of domestic abuse or harassment who don’t want details like their home address known.
This is because, as above, certain people — including political candidates and anyone who will use it for “election, scholarly, journalistic or political purpose or for governmental purposes” — can request a person’s voter registration information under California law. Although your social security number, your driver’s license number and your signature will always stay private, your address, party preference and birth date can be accessed this way.
