A Voter's Message Passed Through Sticky Notes

A few weeks after Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’s running mate in August, Clara Severson found a sticky note on the wall of a women’s bathroom at the Minnesota State Fair. “Woman to woman,” it said, in hand-scrawled letters. “Your vote is private, abortion is healthcare. Harris Walz 2024.” 

Severson took a photo of the note, and posted it to X, thanking “the woman who left this in my bathroom stall.”

The stall, she said, was in a bathroom just a few steps from a far right group’s “Never Walz” stand–a wooden booth decorated with a caricature of Walz holding up a boy’s bathroom pass as Minneapolis burns in the background. You could also spin the “Walz” wheel and land on one of his liberal agendas, like “tampons in boys bathrooms.” It made Severson think it must have been intentional.

Severson has about five thousand followers on X, and often posts her support of Harris. But her sticky note post has garnered the kind of reaction she has never before achieved: two and a half million views, and over three thousand replies. 

It’s not exactly a full-fledged voting campaign, or even a campaign at all. But the messaging may have been inspired by an X thread that went viral in early August. It was posted by Olivia Howell—life coach and co-founder of Fresh Starts Registry, a platform for people who are starting over (after a divorce, moving, career changes) to ask questions, and be directed to info and resources. As election time ramped up, people began asking Olivia about voting. “One particular woman asked, ‘can my husband find out who I voted for?’” 

Howell wondered the same thing. She went online and Googled: “Can my husband find out who I voted for?” Nothing came up besides various voting information, and websites stating how you can vote by yourself, that registered party is public record. There was no direct answer, or reassurance for someone who may be wondering, or worrying. 

Olivia put together an outline of information she was able to find that would answer that question: “We’re very careful not to say [your vote] is secret or private, because there are instances of mail in ballots, or in North Carolina, you can vote with husbands and wives together,” she said. “But it’s not public information–there's no registry and record. And you don’t have to tell anybody who you voted for.” 

But the reminder to women was also met with a lot of anger. “People were very mad that we were telling women they didn’t have to say who they voted for,” said Howell. “I was viciously attacked across the internet. Had death threats and all sorts of things.” 

Some accounts on social media have dedicated themselves to getting this message out there. Liz Plank, a writer and social media personality, has even started directing it towards men—posting videos of guys leaving notes in male-dominated places (sporting venues, Home Depot) that say, “Your dad doesn’t need to know who you vote for,” or “Your buddies don’t need to know.” 

Cathy Schlecter, 74, considers herself one of the first to start selling pre-made post-its. She started selling them on Etsy just a few weeks after Harris announced she was running. Schlecter saw a post on social media of a woman handwriting them in a bathroom. Like the handwritten ones, Schlecter’s post-its state, “Women to women, no one can see your vote at the polls,” along with Kamala Harris in bold lettering. They’re currently being sold in packs of 50 for $14.98. 

On Etsy, the post-its are marked as being “bestsellers” (they’ve had a high sale volume over the last six months) but Cathy hasn’t seen any of them up around where she lives. “We’re a very blue area to begin with,” she says. “I’ve had the most sales to Florida, some in Montana, and even a bunch in California.” 

A few more notes have been found since then and shared through social media. TikTok user @gothbrocc (who wished to stay anonymous) posted a video in late September of a handwritten one found in a Walmart bathroom in Kenai, Alaska. “Your husband/boyfriend doesn’t need to know you voted for Kamala Harris,” it said. “Pass it on!” 

“My gym has been posting similar things, ‘ladies, your vote is secret,’ etc.” one commenter wrote. 

“Omg my mother writes these,” another said. 

One commenter, Izzy Bays, said over TikTok direct message that she found one in the Chick-Fil-A women’s bathroom in Georgia where she works. Another commenter, Maria (who also wished to be anonymous) wrote she found one in the bathroom at a Target in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Media entrepreneur Liz Giorgi shared a photo on X a few weeks ago of a note she found stuck to a box of diapers in an aisle of her local grocery store. “Woman to woman,” it started again, in sprawling handwriting. “Your vote is private and powerful. Vote for freedom and safety of all women and children. Vote for Kamala!”  

Several domestic violence organizations and celebrities have reposted Howell’s original X thread since it was first posted. As election day has gotten closer, the Harris campaign has adopted the message themselves. Just recently, Julia Roberts was the voice of a Harris-Walz commercial reminding women that “What happens in the booth, stays in the booth.” 

You can think these messages are silly, redundant, an unnecessary reminder, an insult to women’s intelligence for saying something so obvious. It does seem extreme—are there women married to men that don’t allow them the freedom to choose while voting? Is it a form of spousal peer pressure, or are there still husbands out there with that much control over their wife? “If a woman doesn't feel safe telling her partner who she’s voting for, that’s a much bigger story. That’s not just about who they’re voting for,” Howell said. “I think we forget a lot that voting is about your vote and voting with your conscience, and that’s something that a lot of women get taken from them in relationships whether it’s your dad, your husband, or your brother.”

Since her original post, Olivia has built a Vote Without Fear resource online, and the “It’s Your Vote” campaign, along with a hotline for information and advice about keeping your vote private. No one knows exactly when or who started the sticky-notes, though. Howell credits Clara Severson with starting it, although she seems to just be one who forced the internet and general public to acknowledge it. 

“It’s just important to remember that half this country didn’t want women to have the right to vote, and there’s still a lot of people in this country that don’t want women to vote,” Howell said. “This has been an ongoing issue. We just shined a light on it.” 

There are women who know their vote is secret, important, and have no problem berating any man who tells them differently. These notes may hold no weight for them. But somewhere, there is a woman in a room full of proud, outspoken, Republican men. When they ask, she may tell them she’s voting red. She may tell that to pollers, surveyors, friends, even her family. She could, theoretically, happen upon a post-it note in a bathroom reminding her about voter privacy. She may think nothing of it. But when she’s in that booth, or alone in her house with that mail-in ballot, it’s enough to hope her choice is completely her own.