DENVER – You’ll be able to take a selfie with your ballot in Colorado next election after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the so-called “ballot selfie bill” into law Thursday.
House Bill 1014 eliminates the penalty in Colorado for taking a “ballot selfie” – an issue that was heavily litigated ahead of last November’s election.
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that kept the state attorney general and district attorneys from prosecuting people who took or posted a picture of their completed ballot.
The Colorado rule was first written in the 1890s and has been reinterpreted over the past century.
The new bill, signed by the governor, changes one of those modifications, created by the Uniform Election Code of 1965 and Election Code of 1992, by eliminating language that prohibits voters from showing their completed ballot to anyone.
But it still allows county clerks and polling center workers to restrict photography at polling centers. Inducing any voter to show someone how they voted will still be against the law.
The bill underwent significant changes as it made its way through the Legislature.
The House added a provision that creates a new misdemeanor offense that will penalize people for trading votes or offering such.
But the Senate stripped that provision, which led to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to pull its support for the bill.
“We didn’t think it had enough controls in it,” Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert told Denver7 Friday. “We will seek legislation to specifically prohibit vote trading in the future.”
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