Justices rebuff bid, so ballot selfies OK

WASHINGTON — New Hampshire voters can keep taking pictures of themselves and their completed ballots.

On Monday, the U. S. Supreme Court rejected the state’s bid to revive a law prohibiting voters from taking such pictures. The justices left in place lower court rulings that struck down the law as an unconstitutional restriction on voters’ free- speech rights.

The state had argued the ban was necessary to prevent vote buying and voter coercion. In the most recent ruling, the 1st U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals called it an overly broad solution to an unsubstantiated and hypothetical danger.

“We repeat the old adage: ‘ a picture is worth a thousand words,’” the appeals court said.

Roughly two dozen states prohibit voters from sharing photos of themselves with their ballots. But those laws are under legal attack, with mixed results. Just before the November election, a judge in New York upheld that state’s prohibition on ballot selfies, while a judge in Colorado said voters could take pictures of themselves with their ballots.

New Hampshire’s law, which took effect in September 2014, made posting a photo of a completed ballot a violation punishable by a fine of up to $ 1,000. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire sued on behalf of three voters, including a man who voted for his dead dog because he didn’t approve of the candidates and posted a photo of the ballot online.

Gilles Bissonnette, legal director for ACLU- NH, called the Supreme Court’s decision a victory for the First Amendment.

“The best way to combat vote buying and voter coercion is to investigate and prosecute cases of vote buying and coercion, not ban innocent political speech,” he said. “Our hope is that, now that this case is finally over, other states will understand that they cannot ban this form of innocent political expression.”

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office declined to comment Monday.