“Ballot selfies”

A recent federal court decision in New Hampshire struck down that state’s ban on taking selfies in a voting booth, see stories in the Washington Post and this editorial in the LA Times. This is an interesting, and potentially important ruling, because if it stands it might open the door to a wave of new voting technologies. If a voter has a right to leave the polling place with a digital image of their ballot, that potentially opens the door to the development and implementation of new approaches to voter verification.

However, this ruling also means that election administrators are going to need to clarify or develop rules and regulations to insure that “ballot selfies” don’t become a distraction in the polling place. While some voters may want their “ballot selfie”, others may want privacy — and balancing the two might be a delicate task in a crowded polling place.