Although there is no law against ‘selfies’ – the ubiquitous practice of taking photographs using a mobile phone of oneself doing pretty much anything anywhere – there is a law against communicating information about the way someone has voted or is about to vote or communicating the unique identification number on a ballot paper, so taking a selfie in a polling booth is being very much discouraged.
The Electoral Commission fears that people taking selfies while voting in the local and European elections today (May 22) could accidentally reveal such details, meaning they would be in breach of Section 66 of the Representation of the People’s Act.
The Commission has therefore told polling station staff to put up ‘no photography’ signs and to ask anyone who takes out a mobile phone not to take a selfie with it, although they should stop short of trying to wrestle the phone away from the voter.
However, if someone does get away with taking one unnoticed, he or she could face a £5,000 fine or six months in prison for breaching the Act, even if they communicated the sensitive information inadvertently.
Anyone seen using a mobile phone in this way will almost certainly have their name and address noted but one electoral services manager has said that she would not necessarily call the police if she saw someone posing in a booth.
A spokesman for the Association of Electoral Administrators has called for the law to be updated “for the 21st Century”, saying that the Act was drawn up in Victorian times when both ‘selfies’ and mobile phones were unheard of.
He added that, while the law relating to obtaining information in polling stations and disclosing such information is complex and that it would be up to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service whether or not to prosecute an individual who may have breached Section 66, his advice would be to leave the selfie for other occasions.