A judge for the US District Court for the District of Colorado [official website] on Friday blocked [order, PDF] Colorado officials from enforcing laws that prosecute or cite voters who take selfies at the ballots. Colorado Rev. Stat. § 1-13-712(1) [text] prohibits a voter from “show[ing] his ballot after it is prepared for voting to any person in such a way as to reveal its contents.” Under § § 1-13-712(4) and 1-13-111 of the same statute, any violation of this provision is classified as a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than one year. Some of the plaintiffs involved were unaware of the above statutes at the time the selfies were taken while others wanted to ensure through the injunction that they will not be prosecuted or cited for taking selfies. Both groups of plaintiffs shared a common fear of prosecution despite assurances from state officials they will not be enforcing the laws. The defendants cited several prior cases, and a recent media release wherein state officials assured voters that they will not enforce the law, to support their contention that the plaintiffs’ fear was baseless. Judge Christine Arguello rejected these contentions stating that the assurances in the prior cases were bolstered by a Supreme Court opinion which is absent in the present case and concluded that plaintiffs’ fear here is not unreasonable. In support of this ruling, the court made particular note of the fact that one of the plaintiffs received a warning from the Colorado attorney general’s office that she violated the law. The court also agreed with the plaintiffs that they suffered an irreparable harm because their free speech rights were chilled and that granting of the injunction is in the public interest at this point in the election cycle.

The above ruling stands in contrast to the rulings of other jurisdictions which have upheld the ban on “ballot selfies.” On Thursday a federal court in New York denied [JURIST report] a similar motion for preliminary injunction challenging a similar New York law that makes it a misdemeanor crime for voters to post pictures of ballots on social media. Likewise on Wednesday a federal judge in California rejected [JURIST report] a legal challenge to the state’s ban on “ballot selfies.” Last month the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] granted a stay [JURIST report] on the preliminary injunction that had halted Michigan’s ban on ballot selfies, effectively reinstating the ban. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [official website] in September ruled [JURIST report] against a New Hampshire law banning electronic devices in the ballot booth, making way for individuals to take “selfies” when voting.