Recently, Justin Timberlake got in trouble in Tennessee for taking a selfie in the voting booth. And just last week a judge confirmed that ballot selfies — voting, taking a photo with your ballot, and posting it on social media, is illegal in New York state.
They've become popular. But every state has different rules over what’s legal.
Matt Roberts, director of communications for the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, said he understands why people take ballot selfies.
But he said, “Up until 2015, taking a picture of your ballot, depending on how you interpret the law, could have been seen as illegal. Well, we changed that law in 2015. So people can take a picture of their early ballot in their house. We, of course, remind people that the law didn’t change when it comes to pictures and cameras in polling places.”
Roberts explained that the ban is meant to protect people’s right to a secret ballot.
In sum: voting-booth ballot selfies are still illegal in Arizona. The law says you have to be 75 feet away from a polling place to take a photo.
So anyone who wants to trumpet their vote in real-time to social media: you are out of luck. Unless you’re posting a photo of yourself, far away from the voting booth, wearing a sticker saying "I voted."