Voter beware: Poll booth ‘selfies’ illegal in New Hampshire - and the ACLU has noticed

OPINION:

Is it better to just wear the cute little “I Voted” tag - or drag out the cell phone and take a “selfie” in the poll booth, complete with ballot? In New Hampshire, a newly updated law now prohibits voters from taking a digital image or photo of themselves holding a marked ballot, then sharing it via social media. No Twitter. No Facebook. It means a $1,000 fine for violators.

The American Civil Liberties Union, however, will have none of it, and has filed a First Amendment lawsuit challenging the Granite State ban.

“There is no more potent way to communicate one’s support for a candidate than to voluntarily display a photograph of one’s marked ballot depicting one’s vote for that candidate,” the group states in their documents.

“What this law ignores is that displaying a photograph of a marked ballot on the Internet is a powerful form of political speech that conveys various constitutionally-protected messages that have no relationship to vote buying or voter coercion,” the ACLU advises.

And one person who’s already shared his ballot: State Rep. Leon Rideout, a conservative Republican from the 7th District, who tweeted out the local primary ballot in early September, telling his followers “vote in 2014.