No matter how you vote, photographing your completed ballot is illegal in NC
In an era when people share nearly everything they do on social media it shouldn’t be surprising that some voters are taking photos of their completed absentee ballots and posting them online.
The problem is that it’s illegal.
Under state law, it’s a crime to “photograph, videotape, or otherwise record the image of a voted official ballot.” The law applies to ballots filled out in a voting booth and those sent in by mail.
The main reason for the law, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections, is that a photograph of a completed ballot could be used in a vote-buying scheme. The photo would be a way for people to prove they voted the way their patron wanted.
The photos would also run afoul of a separate section of state law that requires that voted ballots remain confidential.
The board of elections says it has received seven reports of people photographing their ballots, mostly from voters or county boards of elections who saw them posted on social media.
“Voters should not take a picture of their completed ballot, whether they vote in person or by mail,” Karen Brinson Bell, the board’s executive director, said in a written statement. “We respect voters showing their pride in casting a ballot but ask that they do so in another manner.”
More people may unwittingly violate the law this fall because so many are voting by mail to avoid going to a polling place during the coronavirus pandemic. That means they’re likely spending more time with their ballots than the few minutes it would take to fill one out in a booth on Election Day.
By day’s end Sunday, nearly 1.2 million North Carolina voters had requested absentee ballots, about 10 times as many as had at this point in 2016, according to the State Board of Elections. Nearly 360,000 completed ballots have been returned so far.
It’s also illegal to photograph or videotape your ballot in the voting booth. Voters are allowed to bring cellphones with them into a booth as long as they don’t use them to record a ballot or communicate with anyone via voice, text, email or other method.
So-called ballot selfies are not prohibited under federal law, and state laws vary. Some states like North Carolina ban them, but others do not.
Some state bans have been challenged in court, with mixed results. The American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued the state of New Hampshire in 2014, claiming that its ban on ballot selfies violated the right to free speech. A similar suit in New York failed, however, leaving the state law there in place.
The State Board of Elections periodically reminds voters that it’s a crime to photograph a completed ballot, noting that younger or first-time voters in particular may not know that it is illegal. Violating the law is a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine and up to 120 days in jail.
When the State Board of Elections learns that completed ballots have been posted somewhere, it attempts to contact the voters and let them know they may have violated the law, said board spokesman Patrick Gannon. The decision to prosecute is up to the local district attorney or the attorney general.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 3:56 PM.
