Ballot selfies legal in California — but pose, post with care

Here’s a reminder for Golden State voters parsing propositions and choosing candidates Tuesday: Post and share those “ballot selfies” on social media, but make sure not to violate other voters’ privacy or delay busy poll workers.

In a memo sent in May to county clerks and registrars, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla spelled it out: “A voter may now take a photograph of their ballot (a ‘ballot selfie’) and share it on social media. While ‘ballot selfies’ are allowed under California law, elections officials and poll workers will still need to exercise their discretion as to whether ‘ballot selfies’ cause disruptions requiring a response.”

Such selfies have been allowed since Jan. 1, 2017, thanks to a bill authored by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.

“We don’t have any issue with voters taking their picture while voting. I think it’s a good thing to encourage voters to vote, as long as no one feels like the secrecy of the ballot is being bothered,” said Scott Konopasek, Contra Costa County’s assistant registrar of voters.

“We tell poll workers it’s impossible to police selfies and cell phones, so don’t bother unless someone’s privacy is being violated,” he added. “Our enforcement is characterized as complaint-based. We’ve never had any problems. The issue existed long before there was legislation permitting it, but actually the legislation got people to calm down about it.”

Konopasek said he was hoping voters casting ballots put more energy into a different issue.

“If someone’s voting by mail, we expect them to do that. When someone with a ballot shows up at a polling place just because, it makes other voters have to wait,” he said, noting the planning and purchasing that go into making election operations run smoothly.

“There are reasons someone might need to do it, like the dog ate their ballot, or they don’t have a ballot to vote. Then yeah, we have a safety net for voters like that. But many of the thousands who do just don’t fall into that category,” said Konoposek, who estimated that as many as 75 percent of provisional ballots in the county for the June primary election.