"I vote for who my husband tells me to"

[Applescruffel]

A few years ago, a family member shocked me by saying, yeah, I do vote but I don't know anything about it so I just vote for whoever DH says.

My jaw dropped. Honestly, WTAF?

I advised her to go on isidewith and answer the questions, see what it comes back with. I asked her a few days later if she had, and she said yes, it came back with X party. BUT THEN SHE SAID "but DH wants XX party so I'm going with them" Jaw hit the floor.

Anyway, I'm wondering how common it is. Have any of you ever voted for someone someone else told you to?

yabu - yes, I've voted as per someone else's instructions
yanbu - no, I've always voted according to what I want.

I don't know how my husband votes beyond that it's not SNP. I'm sure he wouldn't vote Reform.

MIL is like this, not just with voting she doesn’t get a say in anything at all.

DH and I disagree on who to vote for all the time, I would never do anything based on what he told me to frankly, I’m more inclined to always do the opposite of what anyone tells me, still haven’t grown out of that.

😄

Had forgot just how hilarious Harry Enfield was until I came across a sketch on YouTube by accident (think it came up in recommended) so clicked on it and started binging on all of them. It stands up to anything.

Anyone who wants a good laugh should watch the Father Ted episodes being watched by an American couple. Here's one;

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XF4ukj8KC_o&pp=ygUTZmF0aGVyIHRlZCBtaWxrbWFuIA%3D%3D

I'd be embarrassed if dh needed to ask me who he should vote for.
He'd be the same about me.
As mentioned before, we also expected our dd to make her own choices re elections and voting since turning 18. We would never dream of telling her who she should vote for.

We may joke about this thread but there's generations of voters who just do what their parents did. It's oft said Labour could field a monkey with a red rosette in the Labour heartlands and it would still get voted in.

2024 General Election survey - Vote for Policies

I've spent a couple of hours on this site this afternoon and now have a very clear idea of what a vote for each party means. It's also told me who I most side with, which has been an eye opener but at least allowed me to research the candidates and now I'm about to go out very confident that I have been true to myself and not just jumped on any particular bandwagon.

It's DS's first election and we've gone over the things he really wants the government to do for him (address youth crime in our area and not stop PIP payments and high on his list lol ) and now he knows which parties are going to do something about that!

As someone who grew up in a country that was not always democratic, I so appreciate that my vote is my right, is my power, and is my secret (election slogans of said country! 😂)

I don't follow your reasoning, Large numbers of people crossing the channel on small boats has nothing to do with Reform, illegal economic migrants crossing the channel isn't garbage it's fact.

I despair.

This was a thing in the past. I used to canvass for a party in the 1960s & wanted to tell some women that other women had suffered/died for the right to vote.

I was also a Presiding Officer at Polling Stations in the 1980/90s, & frequently had to prevent men standing over their wives when they were trying to vote.
There was always a Bobby nearby to move the bastards away & let the women vote for themselves.

I'm shocked at people saying those with dementia and learning disabilities are having votes made on their behalf. The mental capacity screen states no one can vote on behalf of another person regardless of capacity. That's really annoyed me.

Bible-believing Christian here, who also very much cherishes my freedom of opinion and expression, Biblical submission does not mean turning off your brain, though unfortunately I have met a lot of 'Christian' husbands who clearly wish it did! 😊

No I never would. Me and my husband often vote differently.

And it's also why I don't think postal votes should be easy to get. Too easy for the man of the house to fill them all in!

Quite a few years ago I was very peripherally involved in some international discussions about electronic voting. Most of the delegations were talking about formal security standards to prevent hacking. But the Swedes said, "We are not going to allow e-voting until we have a way to tell who has their hand on the mouse and who else is in the room with them", which they made clear was something they didn't expect to happen any time soon. As far as I know, Sweden also only allows postal voting for Swedish people living overseas, for the same reason.

I have NEVER let someone choose for me; even if I'm unsure. My family vote very differently to me and it causes huge arguments if politics comes up at family gatherings, but their views are archaic and insulting (I'm Scottish so the independence referendum a few years ago caused us not to speak for almost a year!).
I do however have a friend who always votes for who her grandfather suggests - which also caused some arguments back when we had our independence referendum because he was in the generation that though independence was a horrific idea. And look at us now...

My mum only ever voted for who my dad voted for. He didn't care who she chose, but she was so completely devoid of any interest in or understanding of politics that she didn't have a clue and just asked who he was going for. We're in NI, so I don't really blame her tbh🤣

Hi I don't mind tou asking :-)

He explains the politics to me and we do talk, but I'm more of a 'traditional' wife for lack of a better word. Which I'm happy with I should say.

So I do tend to trust his opinion and am happy to vote the same as him. I've never really disagreed with him on stuff so i don't know what I'd do if I did disagree on politics.

I really don't see how anyone can enforce who their partner votes for. I mean,they can't go into the booth at the polling station to check who they're voting for,can they? Although I do accept that postal votes would facilitate this.

Do you agree with his choice, or simply do as your told?

This is why postal votes should be reserved for the disabled and elderly who can't get to the polling station. I think many women are made to vote for who their husband/father tells them to because of postal voting. At the polling station they would have less impact on their spouse or DC as it would be truly secret. Any party who wants equality should ensure this happens.

We have a postal vote simply because one year we were going to be on holiday during a GE and we have just carried on with that…we vote very differently though, absolutely no coercion here!

As it happens I do usually vote for the same party as DH but only because I want to anyway. We are quite compatible politically. I don't think I would want to marry someone whose political views were the complete opposite of mine, but if it had somehow happened, I wouldn't let him tell me who to vote for and I would also remind him that your vote is supposed to be secret, so I didn't have to tell him who I was voting for if I didn't want to. If he couldn't accept that, he'd know where the door is!

How embarrassing. I could never be with a man like this. Massive ick.

I agree

You could have put a blue rosette on a wheelie bin, in the constituency we used to live in, and it would still win. The Tories will win there today, I guarantee.

"He explains the politics to me"??? Can you not read for yourself? Why do you need it explaining?

Like some people almost take pride in not being able to do maths or budget .