Susan Hogarth is suing North Carolina over a ballot selfie the state says was illegal

How can taking a selfie get you accused of a misdemeanor?

In March, Susan Hogarth voted in the North Carolina primary and took a selfie with her completed ballot. The following week, she got a letter from state election officials letting her know that she broke the law.

North Carolina is one of 14 states that bans ballot selfies. In that state the act is considered a misdemeanor but comes with the potential penalty of 120 days in jail and a fine.

Now, Susan Hogarth is fighting back. She just filed a lawsuit claiming the state violated her First Amendment rights.

Hogarth and her attorney Daniel Ortner spoke to Scripps News on Wednesday about the case.

“It wasn’t against the rules, it was against the law,” Hogarth said. “And bad laws need to be broken by people who want to see them changed. I wasn’t hurting anyone. I was just expressing my enthusiasm for my candidates and my political party. I also wanted to challenge the law because I know that it’s wrong.”

“I wanted to call them out a little bit.”

Is there evidence that ballot selfies are harmful?

The North Carolina Board of Elections says a completed ballot “could be used as proof of a vote for a candidate in a vote buying scheme.” We asked Ortner if this had happened before.

“There’s absolutely no evidence ballot selfies are used in these kinds of vote buying schemes,” Ortner said. “These ballot selfies are legal now in most states in the country. 14 states in the country now don’t allow them. About 15 legalized it from 2016 to 2020, so in 2020 election, about 50 million people were able take ballot selfies when they weren’t able to previously.”

“Every court that’s had a lawsuit against about ballot selfie laws has found that there was no evidence to support the theory, the allegations that that they’re contributing to some kind of fraud,” Ortner said.

“There’s famous saying that ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’” Ortner said. “And that’s really true with ballot selfies. With a single picture, Susan was able to show who she supported, how she actually voted, to encourage people to get out to vote, to express herself in so many ways that she couldn’t do with even typing out an essay of words. There’s real power showing concretely who you voted for. That’s protected by the First Amendment. And so the state of North Carolina and other states can tell you ‘you can’t take his picture and share this picture.’ It is your First Amendment right to do so.”

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“There’s a huge difference between privacy and secrecy in a ballot,” Hogarth said. “I get and I respect that ballots should be private. Your privacy in the voting place should be respected. But that shouldn’t mean that you have to be secretive. If you want to be open and you want to share. That should be something that’s encouraged in a democracy, not discouraged.”