[image-1]Posting a picture of your completed ballot is currently a felony (yes, dumb), but that could be reversed soon.
The reason? The law is essentially overkill, and it limits a voter’s freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
It’s obviously too late for such a law to be put in effect in time for this upcoming presidential election, but Republican Reps. Mike Duffy and Niraj Antani hope to have it on the books sooner rather than later. If they get their way, Ohio House Bill 609 will be passed next year.
The law is never enforced as it is, but that’s not the point here.
“Because it hurts our justice system to have laws that are unenforced,” Duffey told cleveland.com about the motivation. “It’s not supposed to be a joke — we should work to repeal unconstitutional laws. Period. This is free speech.”
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
Why does anyone even feel the need to do this kind of shit? Bragging? Pix or it didn’t happen? Proof that you voted for the candidate you claimed to have voted for? What the hell is it done for? Free speech? My ass. It’s gotta be for some other reason…and probably a dumb one that I haven’t thought of..
Chuckles the Clown
A few years ago, the selfie craze scampered into road races — with runners posting photos of their competition bibs a few days before an event…..which then found inventive “bandits” making copies, hopping into the race and – frequently – mucking up the results. And it wasn’t a dilemma at some local 10k with an early packet pickup; it was uncovered after post-race photos at major events like the Boston Marathon.
This law was nothing but geezerdom turned up to 11. “Back in my day we didn’t take pictures of our ballots! We carved our votes into a piece of wood in Latin and it was blessed by the village elder!”
I started taking ballot selfies so that there was photo documentation of me voting and a copy of the information on the outside of the envelope. That way if there are (more) GOP shenanigans I have the closest thing to an independent paper trail. I post it on my Facebook page for just a few friends to see so that I have “witnesses.” So yeah, it is actually a case of free speech for me.