Wisconsin Warns: If You Tweet Photos Of Your Completed Ballot, You Can Go To Jail
from the civic-pride-and-handcuffs dept
It’s election day, of course, and with that comes some amount of civic pride among a number of voters. That’s a good thing, for the most part, and in this era of social media and people sharing photos and videos about their lives, plenty of people are sharing imagery of their own ballot. Perfectly reasonable, right? Well, yes, except when that runs into laws designed to keep your ballots secret. There are, of course, good intentions behind such laws. But mixed in with all those local laws concerning camera usage inside a polling place are some that could cause trouble for people doing something quite ordinary. For example, it appears that people in Wisconsin who decide to Instagram/Tweet/Facebook an image of their ballots, have committed a class I felony, election fraud. And this doesn’t appear to just be a law that the state is going to ignore either. It’s been issuing warnings to people that they could face felony charges if they do post those photos. Undoubtedly, many will be unaware that they’re committing election fraud when they thought they were just showing civic pride. One hopes that officials in Wisconsin, and other states, take the context into account before moving forward with any legal responses.
Filed Under: civic pride, elections, felony, photographs, sharing, voting, wisconsin
Comments on “Wisconsin Warns: If You Tweet Photos Of Your Completed Ballot, You Can Go To Jail”
“One hopes that officials in Wisconsin, and other states, take the context into account before moving forward with any legal responses.”
I suspect that will be largely influenced by the outcome.
Oh, pirate Mike — why are you always trying to defend people who break the law and hope they are not prosecuted with a reasonable penalty such as having their head cut off and then hanged by the neck?
Re: Re:
Because it is bloody difficult to stop the noose sliding off if they’ve already been beheaded.
I had my ballot in my hands last week
I had my ballot in my hands at my kitchen table last week*. If I had photographed it, posted it (I do NOT use Facebook), would I then be breaking some election law?
Would it matter if I had filled it out or not?
Would Google be somehow at fault for this?
* yes really. And my ballot was turned in early.
Re: I had my ballot in my hands last week
Someone could argue that it’s copyright infringement.
Re: Re: I had my ballot in my hands last week
Yes, because you can’t rig elections without IP.
/s
Election fraud?
I thought election fraud was manipulating other peoples vote; how is posting a photo of your vote fraud?
Re: Election fraud?
Allowing your vote to be manipulated for personal gain is also illegal. Voting secrecy is not just a matter of private personal right: it is about maintaining the integrity of the ballot itself. Therefore, it is illegal to be a willing participant in any vote manipulation process, even if it is your own vote being manipulated.
Re: Re: Election fraud?
A photograph of your ballot does not somehow tamper with your ballot, nor the ballot of any other voter.
Suppose I didn’t photograph my ballot but merely told everyone that I voted for Mickey Mouse instead of Darth Vader? That would have about the same effect. Would it be illegal?
Re: Re: Re: Election fraud?
A photo of a completed ballot is pretty decent proof of how you voted (yes, I know you can spoil it and ask for a new one), which makes photographing a ballot a useful part of selling your vote.
Re: Election fraud?
Because you can use this to prove who you voted for, proving that yes, you cast your vote just like you were paid to do.
Re: Re: Election fraud?
Maybe you’re not paid to vote a certain way, but threatened.
You better vote for Darth Vader instead of Mickey Mouse or something bad might happen. (We might force you to use Apple Maps.)
I can see your point though. If anyone can take a photo, then it can be used to prove to the extortionist (or vote purchaser) how you voted. So just don’t allow photos or any kind of proof of how you voted in order to protect the integrity of the system.
Re: Re: Election fraud?
Actually, assuming the politicians were thinking when they made the law, if that’s the reason it would seem to be a very sound one.
So if that’s the case, though it might seem a little overboard, I’d have to agree with the whole ‘making it a felony’ bit, as otherwise it would be far too simple for the powerful to game the system.
It is illegal in many places for a reason, as it can be used to claim bribe for voting in an agreed fashion. Use of social networks just make it harder to detect vote buying. If this is allowed then buying votes becomes easy.
For the last day or so in my area of SE Wisconsin, up to and including the early morning news today, it was being made quite clear that use of cameras of any type inside polling places was strictly prohibited and if one did take a pic, even of the line inside, it could lead to a citation or more.
Re: Re:
That makes sense. Maybe a certain party knows how you would vote and tells you it would be better for your health not to vote. Having a photo of you in line to vote indicates a disregard for their wishes.
But they could just watch the polling place.
Court Cases
Has this ever been challenged in court? I have to wonder if it would really hold up vs. the first amendment.
Re:
Only if there is a similarly harsh punishment for deviating from that exact sentence – Merchant of Venice anyone? 🙂
Election fraud?
Am I missing something from not being familar with US election law or perhaps I’m just having trouble following the logic late at night? Are you suggesting it might tamper with an election to send a picture of how you voted to someone, but telling a pollster how you voted as long as you are a legally mandated distance from the polling station doesn’t?
I, for one, agree with laws requiring voting ballots to be kept secret. Voting secrecy exists for good reason and there are studies, in various countries, showing that people do vote differently when their votes are made public (I can’t remember the details but I believe one example in Chili showed that when the country switched from private to public (or was it from public to private?) it did impact how people voted).
Re:
Or maybe not the country but a particular location in the country, I can’t remember.
Court Cases
I’m close to a free speech absolutist but I think this one could. The polling place is a very controlled area, like a surgical theater or an airplane. Lots of actions are controlled.
Whether prohibiting photographs is really well-adapted to its purpose — preventing vote-buying — I’m not sure. The actual crime is vote-buying, not taking a photograph. It is difficult to think of taking a photograph as close enough to being wrong that it should be prohibited.
Re: Court Cases
Marlin v DC Board of Elections (DC Cir. 2001)
Re: Re: Court Cases
> Marlin contends the Board’s enforcement
> of these regulations to prevent him from
> wearing a political sticker when voting
> inside the polling place is an unjustified
> restriction of his right to free expression
> under the First Amendment
I wore my Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 (Why vote for a lesser evil?) t-shirt when I went and voted yesterday, and actually had a little old lady election worker start to turn me away because she said I couldn’t have any political material inside the polling place. I tried to explain to her that it was a joke and that an eons-old leviathan from the deepest abyss was not actually a candidate for office in Tuesday’s election. She said that was all well and good but “even if he isn’t running this time, you can’t wear his campaign shirt into the polls.” It took me pulling out my iPhone and googling up a picture of Cthulhu before she clued in and let me through the doors.
Election fraud?
Telling someone how you voted = you can lie and very few are going to participate in vote buying knowing that you can lie about your vote.
Election fraud?
There is difference between telling someone how you voted and providing evidence showing how you voted.
Re: Election fraud?
> There is difference between telling someone
> how you voted and providing evidence showing
> how you voted.
But the whole absentee process pretty much renders this law unenforceable anyway.
If someone’s buying votes, they’ll just get their customers to vote absentee, then show them the proof in the privacy of their homes and offices before they mail them in.
Does this state that taking a picture of your ballot or the act of posting it would get you into hot water? Also if they were to take a picture to prove how they voted to get paid or whatever they need it for, would the person that is making them do it, just have it sent to them. If that is the case, then they are not posting it. In case no one remembers, we can send pictures without tweeting or facebooking them.
How about looking at this from the other side: put your ***ing phones down for 10 minutes to vote! You don’t need to Tweet or Facebook or Tumblr or whatever else. Geez, what’s next, tweeting photos of yourself using the bathroom?
I wonder if it’s okay for me to Photoshop my blank ballot? Unless it’s also illegal to post images of blank ballots which I highly doubt.
Vote Purchasing
If someone is motivated enough to sell their vote why on earth would they not take a photo of it one way, request a new ballot, take a photo of it the other way and sell them both — leaving their desired vote for the final pic? Do you think the vote buyers would collaborate to prevent fraud? Or that one of the two parties in America is always free from sin?
Screw ’em all: I took a picture of my ballot to make damned sure it didn’t get fucked with, in case things went wrong.
Things didn’t go wrong, so…
voting machines
My question is how do we tell if our vote registered who I am voting for?