People joke about 'cancelling out' family and friends' votes in US election TikTok trend

US Election Day is fast approaching, and it's anticipated to be a tight race between Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

And a recent TikTok trend has seemingly proved how divided households are on this by making light of the matter as voters have been posting videos joking about their vote '"cancels out" the ballot of a family member or friends as they have opposing political views to them.

Over 34 million votes have already been cast in this election so far, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

Some of the videos from the trend typically show a parent with their child, a couple or two friends going to cast their ballots together and have garnered millions of views.

Votes don't really "cancel" each other out but as a result, this trend is a way to discuss having different political views with loved ones in a lighthearted way - after all, politics has no doubt caused arguments at the dinner table for many families.

We just need to look at the statistics to see how political views diverge within American households. Younger people are more like to be Democrat-leaning, last year 66 per cent of registered US voters aged 18 to 24 and 64 per cent of voters aged 25 to 29 said they were Democrat or Democrat-leaning, data from the Pew Research Center found.

Additionally, polls show a gender split when Trump and Harris voters as Harris is winning among women 53 per cent to 36 percent, while Trump is winning among men 53 per cent to 37 per cent, as per a USA Today/Suffolk University poll.

So what does this "cancelling out" vote trend look like?

"POV: OMW (On my way) to cancel out my Trump-loving husband's vote in a swing state," TikTok user @isabelllahayden wrote as she danced with her ballot in the clip which has over 1.3m views.

Another video by @mergitater which has over 3.3m views shows two friends posing with their ballots with the on-screen overlay text which read: "On our way to cancel each other's vote out," and added in the caption: "lol can you tell who’s voting for who".

"Roommates with opposite political beliefs" @pickle.toes.101 wrote in a video where she and her roommate walked out of their place and shook hands while holding their ballots as they made their way to go vote.

McKenzie Owens, 19, who joined in on the trend to “cancel" her boyfriend’s vote told NBC News: "The trend I did as a joke, but just like taking a step back and realizing that people can co-exist even though nowadays politics can also drive people apart."

As part of the trend, some users have @jackolovesyou, @kierasplaypen, and @goodnightem have gone viral for joking that they are voting differently to their friends or partners but in the end, reveal "sike" they both voted for the same candidate.

Though it's not the first time, this kind of thing has gone viral since back in the 2020 election, TikToker users similarly posted how they were going to "cancel out" a loved one's vote.

While many have already cast their ballots, more Americans will be going to the polling station to vote and with Election Day just 10 days away, we'll perhaps see more voters take part in this TikTok trend.

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