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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?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 25 2015, @12:31PM
A couple of years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that voting rules changes in states with a history of preventing black people from voting no longer needed to get federal approval as they had previously under the Voting Rights Act of 1964. The very next day, those state governments were busy passing laws that were known to have the effect of preventing black people from voting.
Of course, it could be that instead of trying to disenfranchise black people, they were trying to disenfranchise Democrats (black people are by far the most Democrat-heavy demographic). But it sure looks suspicious.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @06:23PM
Of course, it could be that instead of trying to disenfranchise black people, they were trying to disenfranchise Democrats (black people are by far the most Democrat-heavy demographic).
Racism by proxy. Once upon a time racists didn't bother to disguise their racism, now they have to resort to one level of indirection. That is progress because the more levels of indirection we can force them to use, the more diffused their results. We will never eliminated racism, the best we can hope for is that it is spread around equally.