{"id":49909,"date":"2015-05-06T14:49:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T13:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/?p=49909"},"modified":"2015-05-06T14:58:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T13:58:05","slug":"general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/","title":{"rendered":"General Election 2015: Polling booth selfies could lead to jail time"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\"Polling_Station_2008.jpg\"<\/a>\t\t\t

Remember to vote tomorrow for the General Election 2015 \u2013 but be careful with the selfies. Image: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Before you upload that #electionselfie to Instagram and prepare to hoover up all those likes, be aware that it could cost end up costing you dearly.<\/p>\n

Under section 66 of the Representation of the People Act 1983<\/a>, it is illegal to ‘communicate at any time to any person any information obtained in a polling station as to the candidate for whom a voter in that station is about to vote or has voted’.<\/p>\n

It is also illegal to communicate the unique reference number of a ballot paper.<\/p>\n

This means that while the act of taking a photo is not technically against the law, if you upload your voting selfie to social media and it ends up infracting any of these rules (even if you didn’t intend it to) you could incur a penalty of up to \u00a35,000, or even face jail time.<\/p>\n

The Electoral Commission first warned of the danger of selfies in the polling booth<\/a> in a letter issued to returning officers before the European and council elections last year.<\/p>\n

It said to the BBC<\/a>: ‘Due to the potential breach of the law, intentionally or not, we strongly advise against any form of photography taken inside a polling station.<\/p>\n

‘However, if a voter would like to highlight their participation in the elections, we suggest this is done outside the polling station before or after they vote.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posting a selfie from the polling booth to social media during tomorrow’s election could land you with a \u00a35,000 fine or even time in prison, warns the Electoral Commission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":49912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-49909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photo-news"],"yoast_head":"\nGeneral Election 2015: Polling booth selfies could lead to jail time - Amateur Photographer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Posting a selfie from the polling booth to social media during the general election 2015 could land you with a \u00a35,000 fine or even a spell in prison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"General Election 2015: Polling booth selfies could lead to jail time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Posting a selfie from the polling booth to social media during the general election 2015 could land you with a \u00a35,000 fine or even a spell in prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Amateur Photographer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Amateur.photographer.magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-06T13:49:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-06T13:58:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2015\/05\/Polling_Station_2008thumbnail.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Johnson and Nicky Oliver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AP_Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AP_Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Johnson and Nicky Oliver\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Johnson and Nicky Oliver\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/#\/schema\/person\/79bc04a6c089fb8210b5b6a82d9e606e\"},\"headline\":\"General Election 2015: Polling booth selfies could lead to jail time\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-06T13:49:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-06T13:58:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2015\/05\/Polling_Station_2008thumbnail.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Latest news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/general-election-2015-polling-booth-selfies-could-lead-to-jail-time\/\",\"name\":\"General Election 2015: Polling booth selfies could lead to jail time - 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