Court says no ballot-box selfies in Michigan, after all

[TexasTowelie]

In the tussle over whether voters may take selfie photos of themselves casting ballots on Nov. 8 – an offbeat dispute being waged in numerous states – Michigan’s anti-selfie side scored a key victory Friday that bans the practice at least in the upcoming election.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati reversed Monday's ruling of U.S District Judge Janet Neff in Grand Rapids that overturned the ban. Friday's ruling ordered a stay -- or hold -- of Neff's ruling Monday that allowed “ballot selfies.” Neff had ruled that Michigan's prohibition was a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.

Two of the three judges in the appeals court’s panel joined in granting the stay, in a ruling that declared that overturning the state’s selfie ban just 10 days before the election did not allow sufficient time to discuss “Michigan’s venerable voting protocols.”

The judges cited the state’s 125-year-old law that was “designed to protect the secret ballot by forbidding voters from exposing their marked ballots to others.” The issue raises important First Amendment issues that can be argued fully after the election in further appeals, the opinion said.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/28/court-says-no-ballot-box-selfies-michigan-after-all--justin-timberlake-election/92911516/

[PoliticAverse]

1. The "ballot selfie" issue is not clear cut, because preventing voters from being able to proove...

that they voted a certain way protects the voter from ultimately being coerced into voting that
way and also reduces the incentive to pay people to vote (which is illegal). This will come down
to whether such laws serve a "compelling state interest" or not.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. How will the 6th Circuit handle a pokemon in a voting booth?

I don't think selfies will speed up the voting line at all. People are waiting while some voter, not liking their smile on the first seventeen selfies, poses for that crucial eighteenth selfie.