While North Carolina does let voters bring their phones to the polls on Election Day, that doesn’t mean you can take a selfie with your ticket.
According to the N.C. State Board of Elections (NCSBE), voters can bring voting guides, notes, and electronic devices, such as smartphones, into the voting boxes.
A lot of states, like California and Alabama, have rules that let voters share pictures of their ballots.
But North Carolina law says that voters can’t take pictures of their votes. This is why, and this is what could happen if you get caught.
Why is it illegal to take a photo of your ballot in NC?
NCSBE says it is illegal to take a picture of your vote in North Carolina because the picture could be used for other illegal things.
NCSBE says that taking a picture of a marked ballot is against the law because the picture could be used as proof of a vote for a candidate in a plan to buy votes.
What is the penalty for photographing your ballot in NC?
A letter from NCSBE to a Raleigh woman who took a selfie with her vote during the March primary says that taking a picture of a completed ballot is a class 1 misdemeanor in North Carolina.
The woman was asked by NCSBE to delete the post, but she chose to sue the agency instead, saying that the rule in the state that doesn’t allow photos of ballots is against the First Amendment, as reported by The News & Observer.
A Charlotte law company called Browning & Long says that people who commit class 1 misdemeanors can go to jail for up to 120 days and have to pay a fine.
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