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Ballot Selfie Bans Coming Before Federal Courts

posted by takyon on Monday August 24 2015, @11:15PM   
from the ballot-selfie-stick-ban dept.

Thexalon writes:

A federal judge recently ruled that banning photos of ballots was unconstitutional:

The ruling clears the way for New Hampshire voters to post their ballot selfies during the first-in-the-nation presidential primaries early next year.

New Hampshire's ban went into effect September 2014 and made it illegal for anyone to post a photo of a marked ballot and share it on social media. The violation was punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

[...] Mashable's Juana Summers adds that the judge found "there was no evidence that vote-buying or voter coercion were current problems in New Hampshire."

This seems like an interesting legal question, with good arguments on both sides:
- For the ban: If a photograph of a marked ballot is taken from the voting booth, then the voter can verify their vote with an interested third party, including those that would seek to purchase or coerce their vote.
- Against the ban: Such a photograph is protected free speech, and thus cannot be legally banned.

What do Soylentils think about this?

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Original Submission

• Re:Means to an End Re:Means to an End (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @12:44AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @12:44AM (#227315)

  As long as I get to write the questions, I'm fine with that.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
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• Re:Means to an End (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @02:21AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @02:21AM (#227355)

  > As long as I get to write the questions, I'm fine with that.

  And I'm fine with it too, but only if I get to write the questions.

  Parent