"I Voted" Selfie Contest?

October 23, 2016 1:54 PM

I run the social media pages for our school's page, and want to do our part to GOTV on the 8th. I was thinking about doing a prize drawing for people who post selfies with their "I Voted!" sticker. As long as the selfie is taken at least 100 ft from the polling place - is there any legal issue here? I'm in Missouri, if it matters. We all get offered stickers here, and I suspect the number of absentee voters in our area will be low, so not too worried about them feeling left out.
posted by jferg to Law & Government (7 answers total)

You may want to worry about people who aren't US citizens feeling erased.
posted by hoyland at 2:04 PM on October 23, 2016 [5 favorites]

The only sort of relevant laws are of either taking pictures in a polling place (which is okay in some places, not in others) or taking pictures of filled out ballots (which is not okay in most places, but is in a few). Definitely nothing related to "I voted" stickers.
posted by so fucking future at 2:13 PM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: First sentence should have read "for our school's PTA" (not "page").

hoyland: Valid point, and we do have decent number of parents who may be non-citizens (I don't know for sure, I'm not privy to that sort of information), but we will be doing other giveaways that they will be able to participate in.

sff: Thanks. That's what I thought but wanted a second opinion. It's hard to google for that.
posted by jferg at 3:02 PM on October 23, 2016

I'm envious your jurisdiction still gives out stickers, as mine (and many others) has stopped. Be careful that no one feels shamed for not voting; that can backfire.
posted by JMOZ at 3:12 PM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If there are prizes, this may be an issue.
posted by kickingtheground at 3:22 PM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

I used to do something similar with my students, until I got enough people feeling left out over not being citizens. It ended up feeling a little divisive rather than fun. But, that's with younger folks (college age) so maybe not as much of an issue with adults? In any case, I never encountered any legal worries around it.
posted by rainbowbrite at 5:36 PM on October 23, 2016

Response by poster: kickingtheground: Thank you! That's the sort of thing I was worried about. Yes, I was going to do a drawing for a prize. I may still do it, but just leave the drawing open to everyone who posts, regardless of whether they include a selfie.
posted by jferg at 7:21 PM on October 23, 2016