Lawmaker Wants To Allow Voting Booth Selfies
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Seizing on the popularity of people showing off their "I Voted" sticker on social media after casting a ballot, a state lawmaker from the West Side has begun a push to allow voters to take "selfies" at polling places.
Illinois law prohibits voters from taking pictures of themselves or their ballots in the voting booth, but state Rep. La Shawn Ford said it shouldn't be.
"If you have no ill intentions, why are you then punished just for taking a selfie?" he said.
He said he believes more people might vote if they were able to take pictures in the voting booth.
According to Ford, part of the reason it's illegal to take pictures of voters casting ballots is out of fear people would sell their vote and use a picture of their completed ballot as proof of how they voted.
"You could prove, 'Hey, I voted for President Obama. Look at my ballot. This is what I did, and so now you could give me my payoff,'" he said.
Ford said buying and selling votes should remain a crime, but added "This law in Illinois – and I believe across the country – is an outdated, antiquated type of law that should be removed from the books."
"Right now, we cannot and should not criminalize a parent that may be in the ballot box, taking a picture of their ballot to have for the record … with their kid, or just for themselves," he said. "It's their prerogative."