Putting ideology over common sense, the Virginia Attorney General Herring is pushing a significant election law change just over 30 days prior to a Presidential Election. The Virginia Assembly has outlawed photography by poll watchers and only allowed access for the media in a limited way.  Well, according to the Daily Progress, the change to allow photo selfies will dramatically impact the process of voting inside polling places and election officials are not happy about it. The change certainly opens the door to “vote-buying fraud” and it impacts the privacy of other voters and election workers just who happen to be around the camera.  More importantly, election officials have long warned that allowing voters to take a selfie of their ballot during the voting process will cause long lines of voters waiting to vote, all waiting until the “utter foolishness” plays itself out.

In June, the Virginia State Board of Elections approved new regulatory language that eased restrictions on electronic devices, prompting two local-level election officials to ask Herring to clarify whether the revised rules conflict with state law.  The change was pitched as a policy modernization to keep up with technological and social change, but it was opposed by several election officials worried it could cause problems on Election Day. Goochland County Electoral Board member Robin R. Lind, who requested the opinion along with Isle of Wight County Electoral Board member William A. Bell Jr., called the regulation change “utter foolishness.”

“To allow people to take selfies in the presidential balloting process is certainly not going to speed the process up,” Lind said in an interview. “I can only believe that it will delay the process and may cause a good deal of consternation from people who think they’re being photographed by somebody else. That could lead to confrontations that we don’t want to have.”