Silent ballots: How Gen Z is navigating the minefield of voter intimidation

For Emma, a 24-year-old nursing student living in California, not discussing politics and lying about who she favored in the 2024 presidential election is a way to save face with her peers.
Emma, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of repercussions, said she was given a “very liberal education” as an undergraduate. “If you were conservative, you were automatically classified as a misogynist if you were a male, and you had internal misogynist beliefs if you were a female or you didn’t know what you were talking about.”
“There was just no room for discussion at my undergrad, and that’s where most of the people who I’ve had to hide, who I’m voting for or lied to, have come from, just because they weren’t open to discussion, and they kind of thought they knew best.”
Voter intimidation caused many to lie about who they voted for this presidential election cycle. A recent Axios/Harris Poll survey found that nearly 1 in 4 voters lied to people close to them regarding their vote, and nearly half (48%) of Generation Z did.
Generation Z and Black voters reported feeling the most concerned about voter intimidation when they reached the polls on Election Day.
How much of each generation lied about their vote:
The voting outcomes this election cycle show that Harris didn’t capture the support of young voters like Democratic candidates have in the past. According to Business Insider, however, Gen Z’s significant shift to the right wasn’t entirely surprising, as teens today are twice as likely to lean conservative compared to millennials two decades ago.
Malcolm Hatfield, an English major at Utah Valley University, told the Deseret News the day after the election that, surprisingly, nobody was really talking about it, and that campus that day had “really normal vibes.”
“I think there is a silent contingent of people who voted for him here. He (Trump) did great in our age group,” Hatfield said, pointing out the contrast with social media being “annoying” to get on that day.
Shortly after the release of the Axios/Harris Poll survey, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign released multiple advertisements targeting women who may have been afraid to vote differently than their husbands. One of the ads, voiced by actress Julia Roberts, tells women, “You can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know. Remember, what happens in the booth stays in the booth.”
Democrats were 3% more likely to lie about who they voted for than Republicans. However, men (30%) were twice as likely to feel the need to stay silent about which candidate they favored, compared to women (17%) who felt similarly.
“I really think that we’ve come to a culture where people are really hiding a lot more than sitting down and just having complete, honest, genuine conversations,” Colby Baron, a 27-year-old in his first year of a physician assistant program at Rocky Mountain University, in Provo, Utah, said.
“I think we also have a culture where people are very black and white” in how we see issues, he said. “So much so that it can seem “brutal when we have differences of opinions.”
Millennials were cited as having the most tension between family members on controversial topics. Thirty-three percent of respondents said that differences of opinion have caused them not to be close with some family members.
“I do think if someone asks you, you should answer honestly, and you should be open about it,” Baron added.
“And unfortunately, if that person isn’t willing to, you know, be respectful of what you’re saying, that’s an uncomfortable barrier that you have to find a way to get through to keep a good relationship going with someone.”
With exceptions, Emma believes younger generations are generally more sensitive than older generations, and that plays a role in why they feel the need to lie, with social media being a driving force behind it.
“I had friends posting, ‘If you voted for Trump … I want nothing to do with you.’ And then I’m like, ‘OK, well, where does that leave me,’ but they don’t know that I voted like that, so they’re fine with me, but I don’t bring it up, and they don’t bring it up because I think they know my family voted Republican.”
“So it’s just this weird thing where it’s like this elephant in the room, where you don’t want to talk about it, and it’s also really hard to talk to someone who gets all their sources from very biased and hateful media,” she added.
“It’s almost like I just feel like I’d be shot down so quick. Is it even worth the effort to defend myself, or is it better to stay quiet and think, ‘Whatever, they don’t really need to know anyways?’”
Connelly Molnar, a 24-year-old photographer/videographer, has been very outspoken about who he voted for on social media because he said this presidential election in particular “meant more to me because I understand the importance and how big of a deal this election actually was not just for me but for my future kids.”
No matter the outcome, “it really wouldn’t have affected me as an individual as it might other people,” but he told the Deseret News that it’s important to him no matter what to be honest.
“It’s like the same thing with religion, the same thing with a job, the same thing with your favorite food like you go and you preach it because you love it. And it’s the same thing with politics. If you’re going to share what you believe in and share what you love, then you have to do it with confidence.”
Being outspoken has caused Molnar to get into political arguments. People have been offended by his posts, disagree with his opinions, and even unfollowed him on social media.
He said it’s been easier to have those conversations when both people keep an open mindset.
“If someone’s liberal, and they come to me, and they can respect me, and I can respect them, then we can easily coexist and work together. I think it comes down to respect 100%. When people don’t respect each other, that’s when bad things happen.”