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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

• excellent idea, and not racist at all excellent idea, and not racist at all (Score: 2, Insightful) by albert on Tuesday August 25 2015, @05:15AM

  by albert (276) on Tuesday August 25 2015, @05:15AM (#227409)

  Because, historically, in the States, tests such as you describe have only ever been used in practice to prevent Blacks from voting.

  That was then, this is now. You're the one being racist. Such a test would eliminate worthless votes by people of all races.

  It wouldn't affect merely the vote. It would change the choices being offered and the nature of campaigns. There would be a lot less distracting nonsense if the parties knew that the voters were smart and well-educated. For those who might hope to be reelected or have some other influence in future elections, the way they rule us would change.

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• Re:excellent idea, and not racist at all (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @06:08AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @06:08AM (#227420)

  > Such a test would eliminate worthless votes by people of all races.

  For your personal definition of "worthless" sure.

  Any sort of testing requirement will just result in pandering to the type of people able to pass the test and ignoring the people who can't pass the test.
  Just like any other sort of benchmark ever.

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• Re:excellent idea, and not racist at all (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2015, @04:08AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2015, @04:08AM (#227958)

  That was then, this is now.

  Because racism ended when a black president was elected, right?

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