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- 7 November, 2006 -
- Journalism -
- Tags : Journalism, Photography
- 0 Comments
I went to vote first thing this morning and arrived at the polling place about 15 minutes after it had opened. I had decided to take some photos for my polling place to participate in AIGA’s Polling Place Photo Project. You can see my set of photos I uploaded for polling place project online. They are not artistic or fancy, just documenting where and how I vote.
While I was snapping away with my camera taking pictures of Arkansas’s new electronic voting machine, one poll worker came over and told me she wasn’t sure I should be taking photographs. I assured her that it was o.k. and that Arkansas Election law did not mention taking photographs in a polling place. She continued saying she thought I should stop and I told her that it was ok and that you see pictures of politicians voting all the time.
After I got back to my office, I decided to look up the election laws in Arkansas on polling places. The Center for Citizen Media blog has a great post on most of the state laws on polling place photography. After reading there brief, I can assure that I violated no laws in obtaining these photographs. In fact, when the poll worker tried to stop me from voting she may have violated the law because she was interfering with a qualified elector casting his or her vote. The Citizen Media Blog’s brief on Arkansas law on polling place photography states:
Interfering with voting is a felony, though there is no mention of photo/video activity. (A.C.A. § 7-1-104.) Election officials “shall not allow any person to pass to the part of the room where the machine is situated, except for the purpose of voting.” (A.C.A. § 7-5-521.) It is not clear whether this applies to photographing your own vote, or voters entering and exiting the polling place.
A.C.A. § 7-1-104 (2006): Miscellaneous felonies – Penalties. (a) The following offenses shall be deemed felonies punishable as provided in this section: (6) It shall be unlawful for any person to prevent or to interfere with any qualified elector from voting at any election or to attempt to prevent or interfere with any qualified elector from voting at any election, provided that this subdivision (a)(6) shall not prohibit good faith challenges of ballots or voters according to law by candidates, authorized representatives of candidates, political parties, or ballot issues;
A.C.A. § 7-5-521 (2006): Arrangement of polling place. [Effective until January 1, 2006.]. (a) The exterior of the voting machine and every part of the polling place shall be in plain view of the election officials. (b) The machine shall be placed so that no person can see or determine how the voter casts his vote and so that no person can see or determine from the outside of the room how the voter casts his vote. (c) After the opening of the polls, the election officials shall not allow any person to pass to the part of the room where the machine is situated, except for the purpose of voting.
