Wisconsin Voters May Soon Be Able To Snap Selfies In Voting Booth
Nowadays everyone has to take selfies of themselves doing anything. Go out to eat, selfie. Go to a concert or sporting event, selfie. How is anyone going to know if you crushed leg day at the gym without a selfie? Believe it or not though, there's one place that doesn't want you taking selfies, and depending where you live it could be a felony!
The voting booth.
For Illinois residents, we have to follow some of the most anti-selfie laws in the country! The law states that "any person who knowingly marks his ballot or casts his vote on a voting machine or voting device so that it can be observed by another person shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony." A felony!
Wisconsin voters on the other hand have a lot more leeway when it comes to taking selfies. Their workers can stop you if you're creating a distraction and they suggest, just suggest, that you don't post a selfie with your marked ballot. Even that was apparently too much for them.
According to WREX, Wisconsin voters may not have to worry about a thing if a new measure gets passed today. It would essentially be fair game to take a selfie even with a marked ballot at a voting station.
Personally, it doesn't bother me if you want to take a selfie in the voting booth as long as you can't see the marked ballot. In my opinion that could open the flood gates and people's vote could be sold with the selfie as proof for payment.
I understand we live in a world where everyone wants to show everyone else what they are up to, so I try to be solution-oriented.
Maybe we could set up a spot at the voting station where a person could take a selfie. It'd be kind of like one of those picture booths they have at weddings. You could have "fake ballot" forms that they could use for the picture, but at least it's not the official vote. That way selfie needs are satisfied, they won't cause delays at actual voting booths, and more importantly, they're voting.