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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDoor-to-door canvassers tell stories of husbands who bully, silence & control their wives votes
Door-to-door canvassers tell stories of husbands who bully, silence and control their wives into voting conservativeProgressive organizer Annabel Park told the story that made me start to wonder. I cant stop thinking about this woman I met while doorknocking for Beto in Dallas, Annabel wrote on social media a few days before the midterm elections.
She lived in a sprawling low-income apartment complex. After I knocked a couple of times, she answered the door with her husband just behind her. She looked petrified and her husband looked menacing behind her. When I made my pitch about Senate candidate Beto ORourke, her husband yelled, Were not interested. She looked at me and silently mouthed, I support Beto. Before I could respond, she quickly closed the door.
Annabel told me afterwards, Its been on my mind. Did she get beaten? That was my fear.
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Wives asked their husbands directly who the two were going to vote for. Many seemed cowed. Husbands answered the door and refused to let the wife speak to canvassers, or talked or shouted over her, or insisted that she was going to vote Republican even though she was a registered Democrat, or insisted there were no Democrats in the house because she had never told him she was one. A friend in Iowa told me, 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, Im a Republican. Before I could reply, he shut the door in my face.
Another friend reported, A woman I texted in Michigan told me, I am not allowed to vote for the candidate. Many canvassers told me those experiences were common. I did not find stories of the reverse phenomenon wives dominating their husbands, or husbands pushing their wives to vote for the Democratic candidate. Of course I talked to people canvassing for Democrats, and domestic violence takes place across the political spectrum, but the bullying seemed to be mostly either to oblige the wife to lean to the right or to not participate at all.
The wife spotted me and jumped up from her table to intercept me at the door before I could knock, one canvasser from California told me.
Without saying any words, the wife softly put both hands out in front of her body, palms facing me. She moved her hands from side to side as though to tell me, No thank you, please go away without making a noise.
She was one of many who appeared to be afraid of their husbands.
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Yet another canvasser reported that one of those husbands, this time in Turlock, California, told her, And if she needs to know how to vote, Ill just take her in the back and beat her. He was sort of joking but sort of not.
This ordinary, ugly scenario raises another question, about whether voting by mail takes away the privacy of the voting booth and the ability for women to act on their beliefs without consequences. And its a reminder of why womens long quest for the vote in the US and elsewhere was such a radical thing. Insisting women should vote was insisting that we should be equal and independent participants in public life, with the right to act on our own behalf and in our own interests.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/19/voter-intimidation-republicans-democrats-midterm-elections
BigmanPigman
(51,432 posts)aware of the real Americans and how the patriarchy is strong and thriving in the US. We are NOT as advanced socially as we like to think we are.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Patriarchy is strong.
brush
(53,475 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,432 posts)Fuck off hubby!
tblue37
(64,982 posts)manor321
(3,344 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)... to stand in line for hours to vote. It could end up being six of one, half a dozen of the other.
I would think that the benefits of voting by mail (greater participation rates, greater ease of voting, a paper trail, time to read the voters' pamphlet to keep from getting misled by a cleverly titled ballot measure, etc) would outweigh the number of ballots that were influenced by abusive spouses. But I could be wrong.
ck4829
(34,977 posts)Doreen
(11,686 posts)I have an extremely hard time believing that more than half of the American women voluntarily voted for an administration that wants to hurt women and their little girls. Please, bring up that picture of donald dump standing over melanoma while she votes. That picture said a lot to me.
tblue37
(64,982 posts)Doreen
(11,686 posts)Vile piece of orange crap.
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)for Obama in 08, I called me woman and a man answered. I identified myself and my purpose to the man. He shouted at me, Im not letting her vote for that n****r! and hung up.
Demsrule86
(68,355 posts)I refused to knock on door with confederate flags! I digress, I saw that quite often. The women mouthed they would support president Obama while the husband glowered...that was the area one man threatened to set the big dog on me...with great dignity and shaking knees, I told him it would be a shame if that happened...as he looked like a fine dog and it would be a shame to have to kill him...as I walked to the car. I could feel his eyes burning in my back the entire way...I was terrified and mad! After that my daughter stayed in the car with 911 on her phone. You meet some winners when canvassing. You only contact Democrats but some may have old registration ( become possessed by the GOP disease) or moved with new folks living in the house.
raccoon
(31,092 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)secret ballot though, who knows how the person really votes.
lostnfound
(16,139 posts)tblue37
(64,982 posts)raccoon
(31,092 posts)By their husbands. Might as well be slaves.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)If one wants to see how the other have lives,go Canvasing,what a learning experience.
That is why I always Volunteer every two years. If there is a asshole living in any neighborhood,you can bet you will encounter said Asshole.
3catwoman3
(23,820 posts)...of ways, it can still suck to be a woman.
lindysalsagal
(20,444 posts)They told me.
Meowmee
(5,164 posts)A woman sitting next to me told us all a woman she spoke with said she would vote for who her husband told her too😳 I had a similar experience with a man in PA I spoke to, when calling for HRC, he would not let me speak with his wife and said she votes for R etc. 🤢
Demovictory9
(32,324 posts)Meowmee
(5,164 posts)I think there are a large number who are well off who vote r as well
samnsara
(17,572 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)during my stint as an election judge. They were usually older couples who'd probably been raised to think that husbands know best.
jpak
(41,742 posts)An elderly couple came in to vote.
When asked their party affiliation, the wife said "Independent"
Her husband immediately "corrected" her - "NO, You're a republican!"
Wife - "but I thought I was an Independent!"
"NO!, said the husband, "You're a republican!"
The wife stifled a whimper and said "I'm a republican".
Which speaks volume about the fucking KGOP.