Can I Take a Selfie With My Ballot?

For those in Massachusetts wondering whether they can take a picture of themselves with their filled-out ballot or photograph a "selfie" of the completed ballot itself, the short answer is "no" (but you probably won't get in trouble if you do).

The longer answer is a little more complicated, and it's worth noting that it puts the Bay State in an increasingly rare position.

According to state law, taking photos of a completed ballot in a Massachusetts polling place, or before mailing one in, is banned. However, the state's head election official has said there's not much officials can do to prevent it.

It goes back to a state statute, according to which, a photo of a marked ballot "shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months or by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars."

But Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin this September described the act as discouraged, but not prohibited.

"If people insist on doing it, there's nothing we can do about it," he said, according to MassLive.

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According to Galvin, the law was not written in anticipation of social media. Instead, as his office has previously stated, it was an effort to ensure votes could not be bought or elections otherwise manipulated.

According to a review by The Associated Press, 18 states have laws against sharing any photo of your ballot, and six states ban photography in polling places (although they do permit "selfies" of mail-in ballots).

In New England, the AP's review found, Massachusetts is the only state to keep its ban on the books. A similar statute was recently struck down as unconstitutional in New Hampshire, successfully argued as a violation of freedom of speech.

Photo by Ellen De Vos, Flickr/Creative Commons