Eric Trump Deletes Illegal Ballot Picture — After We Pointed it Out — ProPublica

Eric Trump Deletes Illegal Ballot Picture — After We Pointed it Out

by Jessica Huseman

Nov. 8, 2016, 4:32 p.m. EST

Who says Twitter doesn’t lead to change? Eric Trump, son of Donald Trump, deleted a picture of his ballot this morning after Electionland pointed out that ballot pictures are illegal in the state of New York, where he voted. He has deleted his tweet, but not before our tweet was retweeted more than 900 times:

A quick reminder to other New York voters: This is actually illegal. Please do not post a picture of your ballot (or a ballot selfie). https://t.co/zOlnCHwVB8
— Electionland (@electionland) November 8, 2016

Here’s his original tweet:

But, like Justin Timberlake’s mild brush with ballot selfie law this one is not likely to result in any actual legal action.

For what it's worth, posting pictures like this continues to be illegal because of concerns over ballot privacy. In theory, someone could buy your vote or otherwise coerce you into voting for a specific candidate, and ask you to take a picture of it to prove it. Regardless of pressure, if you live in New York please do not tweet pictures of your ballot. If you live elsewhere, check this handy guide to see if you can post a ballot selfie.

About Electionland

ProPublica’s Electionland project covers problems that prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots during the 2020 elections. Our coalition of newsrooms around the country are investigating issues related to voter registration, pandemic-related changes to voting, the shift to vote-by-mail, cybersecurity, voter education, misinformation, and more.

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