According to Pew Research, 22 percent of registered voters today indicated who they voted for via social media. Many of those people did so by posting pics of their ballots to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. With that said, some of those people could go to jail.
Reports All Things D:
According to the Citizen Media Law Project’s Web site, some states, including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada and Texas, “expressly prohibit the use of photographic and recording equipment inside polling places.”
The site also offers a handy chart summarizing the laws in each state around documenting your vote.
One voter in North Carolina, where it’s illegal to take photos of completed ballots, under Statute 163 – 166.3 (sections b and c), was stripped of his smartphone when he took it out to consult his list of chosen candidates.
The state of Wisconsin is taking an even harder line, with the Government Accountability Board telling voters that posting completed ballot pics to Facebook or Twitter constitutes election fraud under the state’s law — a Class I felony. It’s also not the first time the Wisconsin GAB has warned of this.
Gee, these laws sound like they were made by old people who hate technology or something. Meanwhile, Google searches for “who is running for president” spiked through the roof today…
AMERICA!
(Pic via Instagram)