A woman has filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina elections board over state laws that criminalize photos in polling places after she was notified she may have violated the law with a selfie.
Hogarth, who is running as the Libertarian Party candidate for state Senate District 13, has “voted in nearly every national election” in the last 10 years, the lawsuit states.
She has also “taken and shared ballot selfies” when voting in those elections and “intends to do so again,” it says.
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” the lawsuit begins. “That’s why Susan Hogarth took a photo with her March 2024 North Carolina primary ballot and shared her ‘ballot selfie’ on social media to show her thousands of followers her pride in voting for her chosen candidates.”
According to the lawsuit, Hogarth took her selfie in the ballot booth while holding up her completed ballot and standing in front of a sign saying ballot photos were not allowed in the voting booth.
Hogarth then shared the image on the social media site X alongside the caption: “Laws against #ballotselfie are [expletive]. I guess this is my endorsement for @ChaseForLiberty and @FireTheUniparty.”
Two weeks later, the North Carolina State Board of Elections sent her a letter notifying her she could face criminal prosecution over the photo.
“Photographing a marked ballot is illegal in part because such photographs could be used as proof of a vote for a candidate in a vote-buying scheme,” the law states.
The letter from the board asked Hogarth to take the post down.
However, Hogarth refused to comply and instead filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections arguing the ballot selfie ban is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
She is asking the court to have the statutes struck down as they apply to ballot selfies.
In the lawsuit, Hogarth argues she shares the ballot selfies to “promote the lesser-known candidates she typically votes for, show voters they can vote for third-party candidates, challenge the narrative that voters can only vote for major party candidates, encourage potential voters to vote, commemorate her vote for herself and posterity, express her personal pride in participating in the electoral process, and express her disagreement with North Carolina’s ban on ballot selfies.”
Hogarth further argues that North Carolina must demonstrate that its concerns regarding vote-buying schemes are real and “not merely conjectural” but outweigh the right to protected speech.
Hogarth is being represented in the legal challenge by the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
A spokesperson for the North Carolina State Board of Elections declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
