Should 'ballot box selfies' be banned?

• Author: Gardner, William
• Position: Debate

Teens and 20-somethings document their entire lives on social media, tweeting and Instagramming photos of everything from brushing their teeth to hanging out with friends. But what about that ballot some of you will cast for the first time in November? Taking a photo of a marked ballot is illegal in at least 23 states (see map).

Legal fights over the bans have recently erupted in several states. In both New Hampshire and Indiana, federal courts have thrown out bans on the photos--often called "ballot box selfies"--on the grounds that they violate the First Amendment's free-speech guarantees. Indiana is appealing the ruling, and at press time New Hampshire was considering appealing its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last month, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill making ballot box selfies legal in the nation's most populous state.

YES

The right to vote according to your conscience, without fear of intimidation or interference, is one of the most fundamental ideas in American democracy. But you can't do that without a totally secret ballot.

That's why we must prohibit people from taking pictures of their marked ballots and then posting them online.

Anyone has the right to tell people who they voted for, but showing the actual marked ballot is an entirely different matter because it offers proof.

In the 19th century, vote buying was common. In fact, it's estimated that 10 to 15 percent of all votes cast in the late 19th century were bought and paid for. Showing a marked ballot that proved who you had voted for was often how people claimed their payment.

To solve this problem, a series of laws were passed in the 1880s and 1890s requiring the government (rather than political parties) to print ballots and prohibiting people from revealing marked ballots. But if we once again make it legal for voters to show an actual marked ballot to someone else, that would open the door to voter coercion--and possibly outright vote buying.

Even today, some people face pressures to change their votes--from an employer, from a union, or even from a spouse. If anyone asks you to provide proof of how you voted, you should be able to tell them that taking a picture is illegal, and you can't do it.

The bottom line is that anything that compromises privacy at the ballot box is a step in a very dangerous direction. Some of the most feared dictators of the 20th century--including Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein--forced people to vote in sham...