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Federal Judge Strikes Down N.H. 'Ballot Selfies' Ban

Allegra Boverman for NHPR

New Hampshire was the first state to expressly prohibit ballot selfies.

The logic was that allowing people to prove how they voted could lead to vote buying or coercion.

The federal court found those interests insufficient to ban what amounted to political speech. 

Gilles Bissonette of the NH ACLU was lead attorney on the case.

“What the court concludes was that the law was overbroad because it deprived voters of one of their most powerful means of letting the world know how they voted.”

The state investigated 4 voters for taking ballot selfies in 2014. 3, including Lancaster state rep Leon Rideout sued the state. Rideout hasn’t made up his mind about who’ll he’ll voter for in the 2016 primary, but stay tuned.

"I will probably do a ballot selfie in celebration of the victory come primary time."

Most states have some sort of prohibition against sharing marked ballots, though several  have adopted polices to permit ballot selfies.

Josh has worked at NHPR since 2000.
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