Snap judgment: Whether your ballot selfie breaks the law

As millions of Americans vote on Election Day, many will reach for their phones before they leave the booth. Whether the resulting ballot selfie is a harmless show of civic pride or a violation of state law depends on where they are standing.There is no federal law on ballot photography, leaving states to reach opposite conclusions. Some explicitly allow voters to photograph their marked ballots, others ban it, and many are silent, leaving local election officials to interpret polling-place camera restrictions. Federal courts have blocked or struck down some bans, and estimates of how many states still prohibit the practice range from 12 to 26. Which states ban ballot selfies? A Washington Examiner review of state laws found that 15 states explicitly ban ballot selfies, 10 explicitly allow them, and 10 more permit them under state guidance. Six states have different rules for absentee and mail-in ballots, and 10 others, including the District of Columbia, have unclear rules. The picture was very different a decade ago. States adopted the secret ballot to guard against coercion and bribery, and many added limits on cameras in polling places to protect privacy and prevent disruptions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Smartphones and social media then made photographing and sharing a ballot easy, and those old rules suddenly applied to a new behavior. In 2014, New Hampshire passed a law that explicitly banned ballot selfies. By 2016, 26 states adopted similar measures banning the practice, as nine states allowed it and 15 remained silent.Why the bans exist, and how courts have ruled Most of the prohibitions were written to combat vote buying and coercion. The logic is that a photo of a marked ballot could serve as proof of how someone voted. Many of the laws predate smartphones and social media, and critics say they now catch ordinary voters who simply want to post a photo.The landmark challenge came from New Hampshire. After a 2014 law barred voters from sharing photos of their marked ballots, state Rep. Leon Rideout posted a picture of his own from that year’s primary and was investigated. In 2016, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck the law down as a violation of the First Amendment. The court found that the state was trying to prevent an “unsubstantiated and hypothetical danger.” The state’s top election official had acknowledged he could point to no vote-buying incident in New Hampshire since at least the 1970s.A federal judge in Indiana barred enforcement of that state’s ban, issuing a permanent injunction in 2017. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear New Hampshire’s appeal that year, and Michigan settled a challenge in 2019 by allowing voters to photograph their own ballots in the booth, as long as they don’t appear in the photo.But the 1st Circuit’s ruling is binding only in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico. Elsewhere, bans can and do survive, which is why no national standard exists.Penalties vary, but most states that ban the practice treat it as a misdemeanor. Georgia and New York carry maximums of up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail, according to state laws, while Illinois can treat a violation as a Class 4 felony punishable by up to three years in prison. Enforcement appears to be rare. Election workers are advised to typically start with a warning and a request to delete the photo. Prosecutors seldom pursue charges without signs of vote buying or coercion. Voters who refuse can be asked to leave the polling place, though in most states that doesn’t cost them their right to vote. Nearly 50 million young adults are eligible to vote in the midterms, including 8.5 million new potential voters who are 18 or 19. Many of those Generation Z voters are on social media and are even being targeted by get-out-the-vote groups to turn out at the polls.Polling shows young voters are plugged in, though surveys disagree on how many will turn out. In a national poll published by Emerson College, more than 95% of voters ages 18 to 29 said they were either “very excited” or “somewhat excited” to cast a ballot this November. Whether the electorate turns out to vote is to be seen, and while sharing a ballot may be viewed as a natural part of civic engagement, with supporters backing the effort as protected political expression, posting can raise the legal stakes.In states that ban ballot photos, sharing one online doesn’t create a separate crime, but it leaves a record that makes prosecution easier. Where a law targets photos taken at the polling place, a mail-in ballot photographed and shared from home may fall outside it, though a law against revealing how you voted could still apply.Major social media platforms generally allow ballot photos, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X. Users may be advised that their post may be flagged for other platform users with a community guidelines message or an elections information banner, depending on the platform’s protocol.What voters should know Even where selfies are legal, officials generally retain authority to stop behavior that disrupts voting or exposes another voter’s ballot. Rhode Island’s rules, for example, permit voters to take photos as long as they do not show anyone else’s ballot.W. JAMES ANTLE: Will GOP and rural voters show up to polls?Election offices have promoted ways to show civic pride without a marked ballot. The NCSL points to photos with an “I Voted” sticker, including Georgia’s non-partisan “Post the Peach” campaign, and selfies next to a “Vote Here” sign. The Tennessee secretary of state’s office encouraged voters to print an “I Voted – Have You?” sign for their posts.The safest move, according to legal guides, is to check your state’s secretary of state website before heading to the polls. When in doubt, keep your phone in your pocket until you have left the polling place.