UK Elections 2015: Selfies at the polls could land you in jail

News.com.au

 IT may have been billed as the first ever social media election in which political parties including the leaders used all platforms to share their campaign messages and invite electorate engagement.
But voters in today’s national elections in Britain have been warned they face fines and even six months jail if they reach for their camera phones in the polling booths to take selfies and inadvertently breach laws on the secrecy of ballots.
As millions of voters took to the ballot boxes across the UK today, officers from the Electoral Commission warned voters — particularly the potentially 3.3 million young people voting for the first time — it is an offence to show anyone images even of their own ballot paper.
Under Section 66 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, although there is nothing to stop someone taking a picture of their own ballot paper, it is an offence to communicate or publicise this information to anyone else.
That is it is illegal to share a photographic image of a ballot paper that could infringe secrecy requirements and those found guilty of a breach can face a fine or even six months in prison.
“Remember that pictures of you before you go into or after you leave the polling station are great to use on social media posts but don’t take a picture of yourself inside the polling station as if you post this it could be a breach of the law,” a Commission spokesman said.

All electoral officers had been told to stop people taking selfies at the booths.
Social media has been a major feature of the election campaign.
Over the last five weeks tweets and Facebook posts and other social media platforms and forums have been in use on an almost 24-hour cycle making it Britain’s first full social media election.
The major parties have tweeted more than 15,000 times during the campaign, the total four times higher when smaller Twitter accounts the parties manage are factored in.
Each day the major parties have tweeted anywhere between 50 and 90 times a day, with facts and figures and posting rebuttals and attacks to their opponents within minutes of a story breaking.

Social media have allowed the parties to also target their campaign message with localised statements not just on geography but also interests and behaviour and much time had been spent by campaign headquarters to grow social followings through among other things paid for promotion.
Over the last five weeks all of the parties have expended great effort to grow their social following, through a combination of real growth and paid-for promotion, as well as pushing key messages.
On Twitter, Labour remained the most popular account with 211,822 followers while on Facebook, the Conservatives and Ukip have been locked in a tussle to dominate the number of “Likes” their official pages have received.