Tampons, Post-it notes and Julia Roberts: Democrats attempt to win women's votes

With just hours until US voters cast their ballots, presidential campaign teams are making a final push to secure the support of key demographics.

For Kamala Harris' campaign, one such demographic is women.

Women have made up a majority of the electorate in every presidential election in the last 40 years and the vice president is counting heavily on mobilising them in her race for the White House.

One way in which Democratic campaigners are trying to help with this is by hiding handwritten notes in spaces frequented by women, including public toilets and women-only spaces.

A note stuck to the door of female toilet and shared on social media, reads: "Woman to woman, no one sees your vote. It's private. Protect your body and your right to vote. Your voice, your choice. Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Vote Kamala Harris!"

While another message stuck onto the packaging of a tampon, read: "Stop the red wave! Vote for women's rights HARRIS/WALZ".

Some campaigners are even selling business cards and Post-it note pads with the words "no one sees your vote" for up to $20 (around £15) on websites such as Etsy and eBay.

Olivia March Dreizen Howell, a domestic violence campaigner who set up the group Vote Without Fear, is one of the voices behind the "sticky note trend" and regularly posts reminders to her followers urging them to be secretive of who they are voting for.

In one post on X, she wrote: "Friendly reminder that you do not have to tell your husband or boyfriend who you voted for. He will not and cannot find out who you voted for, unless you tell him."

According to a recent YouGov poll, one in eight women in the US have voted differently from their partners in an election without telling them, while for men it was around one in 10.

The Vote Common Good campaign, which endorses Harris, released two videos targeting Evangelical and Catholic voters in a bid to convince them to reject the Republican vote, that they would traditionally reach for.

The campaign released two 30-second videos, one aimed at women and one at men, voiced by Hollywood actors Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

The video narrated by the Pretty Woman star reminded viewers: "no one needs to know who you’re voting for" encouraging women to secretly choose Harris without telling their Republican-voting husbands.

The clip, shared online, showed a blonde woman wearing a cap bedazzled with the US flag arriving at the polling booth to cast her vote with her husband. Her hand lingers over the option to vote for Trump, before she catches eyes with another woman and instead fills in the circle next to Harris' name.

“Did you make the right choice?” her husband asks, to which she replies: “sure did, honey,” before turning to smile at her female friend.

Meanwhile, Clooney's video urged men who might feel they have to vote like their "MAGA friends" to "remember who we love the most", depicting a man hugging his daughter after secretly casting his vote for Harris.

The campaign has sparked backlash from Trump supporters and right wing media figures, with outrage particularly focused on Roberts' clip urging women to "vote with their conscience".

Fox News host Jesse Watters told viewers that his wife, Emma DiGiovine, secretly voting for Harris would be “the same thing as having an affair”.

Discussing the clips with panelists on Fox News show The Five, he said: "If I found out Emma was secretly going to the polling booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair.

"That violates the sanctity of our marriage, what else is she keeping from me? What else has she been lying about? It's over Emma, that would be D-Day."

Democrats hope a record number of women come out to vote this year, given the party’s intense focus on women’s reproductive rights, and the fact that this is the first general election since the overturning of Roe v Wade.

Harris supports legislation that would protect the right to abortion nationally.

Along the campaign trail, she has been quick to blame Trump for the consequences of Roe v Wade being overturned, saying the bans in some states amount to a denial of healthcare.

During her last campaign rally ahead of polls opening, Harris went for an optimistic tone, urging voters to "turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division”.

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