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You May Get In Trouble If You Take A Selfie In Voting Booth

We all love a good selfie but please refrain from taking them in a voting booth. Why? It may be illegal.

In our current selfie obsessed world, we capture every single moment of our lives on camera. Meals, outfits, traffic, nature, everything...we photograph it all. Most of us have thousands, if not more, photos in our phones...and we rarely look at them again. Seriously, look at your photos in your phone and think about how many you really need to keep? Probably 1%.

Well, this election is giving many of us an actual reason to take a photo - we are voting for the first female President. And for many of us, this is a moment we really do want to photograph.

So who could blame a person for surreptitiously taking a photo in a voting booth, smiling as they point to their voting form with the "Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine" selection made?

Bad news, selfie lovers. Most states frown upon these kinds of snaps. In fact, in many states it is actually illegal! Vox made this handy dandy guide about which states allow photos. In all, 21 states do allow you take a photo with a ballot. Yippee! But, 16 states have actually made taking a photo with a ballot illegal, with penalties including a fine and/or jail time. Yes, you read that right, if you take a photo with a ballot you could actually end up behind bars.

So before you snap that pic, check your states voting laws to be sure you aren't risking your freedom (or a hefty fine) to take that killer snapchat photo.

But don't forget to vote. It isn't illegal to take photos outside the polling place (as I did) and trust me, you won't be alone. At my polling place it actually is not allowed to take photos inside, but people were lining up, cheering and wiping tears as we took photos next to the Clinton/Kaine lawn sign outside. And that photo is better than any ballot photo, in my opinion.

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