Election Law, Justice, Politics

If You Forget To Take A Selfie With Your Vote, Does It Still Count? (YES, YOU IDIOTS)

Elie Mystal can't believe that these people are forcing him to formulate an opinion on ballot selfies.

By  
on
I'd be the black kid in the background looking like I was suddenly questioning whether this whole idea was cool.

I’d be the black kid in the background looking like I was suddenly questioning whether this whole idea was cool.

The American body politic has devolved to the point where we need actual case law on whether or not “ballot selfies” are legal. We’ve literally made a federal case out of this.

I envy the dead.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Janet Neff invalidated Michigan’s ballot selfie prohibition. From the Detroit Free Press:

The Court agrees with the Plaintiff that the interests in the integrity of the electoral process can be secured in a more reasonable manner than the blanket prohibition on citizens’ photography,” Neff.

“The prohibition on ballot selfies reaches and curtails the speech rights of all voters,” she added, citing a similar New Hampshire ruling on the issue.

The successful plaintiff is Joel Crookston, who took a ballot selfie in 2012.

The Michigan attorney general, Bill Schuette, announced his intention to appeal the ruling because these are the kinds of voting rights issues we should TOTALLY be focusing on right now. [sarcasm off]

Sponsored

Schuette said it’s not unconstitutional to ban photography in polling places as a means to discourage vote-buying and coercion, as well as voter intimidation.

“Crookston would not be irreparably harmed by a stay,” the appeal said, “He has ample alternatives to communicate about the content of their ballot and the voting experience, including photographing himself with his ‘I voted sticker.’ ”

The last minute change in state law will create “disruption and delays — in essence the chaos — that will inevitably result from last-minute changes to familiar procedures.” Schuette wrote in the appeal.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Justin Timberlake tried to bring voting back. Like sexy, it hadn’t gone anywhere, but Timberlake snapped a selfie to associate himself with the continuously occurring phenomenon. From Reuters:

The singer and actor appeared to have run afoul of Tennessee election law when he posted the photo, the latest controversy over so-called ballot selfies.

Timberlake, 35, posted the photo on Monday and said in the caption he had traveled from Los Angeles to his hometown of Memphis to take part in early voting ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

“Get out and VOTE! #exerciseyourrighttovote,” Timberlake said in part of the photo’s caption, which was posted on Instagram, a social media site where he has over 37 million followers.

Tennessee law prohibits voters from recording or taking photographs or videos inside a polling station.

The Shelby County district attorney’s office had said on Tuesday it was aware of a possible violation of state election law and was reviewing the matter, before clarifying that the original statement was incorrect.

Before Tennessee clarified that it wasn’t investigating Timberlake, I saw on Twitter somebody saying that Timberlake’s vote “might not count” because he took a picture of it.

I can’t… BELIEVE that these people are forcing me to formulate an opinion on ballot selfies. But watching the Twitterati talk about the election law of selfies is like watching a turtle stuck on its back: it’s funny for a while, but then it just makes you sad and angry at whatever flipped the poor thing over.

Sponsored

Whatever, here we go, I’ll show my work for this “hot take of pity”:

Schuette is right, banning photography is a bulwark against voter coercion. If you tell your husband, “sure, honey, I’m totally going to vote for Trump,” it’s good if he cannot demand photographic evidence that you performed your pledge. The secret ballot contemplates the ability to lie about your voting record whenever you choose.

But Neff is also right: We live in a “pictures or it didn’t happen” world, and being able to document your vote is a powerful and basic exercise of free speech. We don’t have any evidence suggesting Trump husbands, union bosses, or Russian operatives are seeking to use camera phone technology to coerce or pay for votes. We do have evidence that people really want to exercise their free speech rights to record their vote and share it with their friends.

The best option would be to allow the speech and aggressively prosecute the coercion wherever it happens, should it ever happen. We have laws against “vote buying” or whatever other fever dreams Bill Schuette can come up with. Let’s use them. In the meantime, people should be allowed to take a selfie in the polling booth.

I’m pro ballot selfie, now. You should be too. Let’s never speak of this again.

Federal court lifts Michigan ban on selfies of ballots [Detroit Free Press]
Pop singer Timberlake will not be investigated for ballot selfie [Reuters]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He doesn’t even really like getting an “I voted” sticker. You are SUPPOSED to vote. Calling attention to yourself for doing it is a little bit like demanding aplomb for successfully wiping your ass.

Topics

, , , , , , , , , ,