Libertarian voter and state Senate candidate Susan Hogarth broke the law on March 5 with a single Tweet . Hogarth took a selfie that included her completed primary election ballot inside a Wake County voting enclosure, captioning it “(1) Laws against #ballotselfie are (B.S.). (2) I guess this is my endorsement for @ChaseForLiberty and @FireTheUniparty .”
Two weeks later, Hogarth said she got a letter from the State Board of Elections informing her that she was subject to criminal prosecution under North Carolina law . In North Carolina, taking photos, videos or otherwise recording the image of an official voted ballot carries a Class I misdemeanor charge.
Hogarth sued the State Board of Elections, the Wake County Board of Elections, Wake County District Attorney Lorin Freeman and Attorney General Josh Stein over the incident. She argued that banning so-called ballot selfies violated her First Amendment right to political speech…