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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, Interesting) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday August 25 2015, @03:24PM
The secret ballot? The one where even the voters can't prove which vote was cast, even if they wanted to?
The ballot doesn't count unless it goes in the box. After you take the selfie, you can go back to the poll attendants and ask them to discard the ballot and give you a fresh one, then fill that in with different votes. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.