Taking photos at the polls is a no-no
November 04, 2008
The husband and I wanted to vote together this morning, as couples often do, especially when we are of the same political mind. At around 8:15 a.m., we arrived at our polling place at Westgate Park by separate vehicles – I rode my new Ridley motorcycle I got at Daytona – and found a line outside the door. People were parking as far away as Miracle Field. A lot of voters. So, the husband waves me on, saying he’ll come back later.
Once in line, someone came out and said the line was short for A-L, or something like that, so I got ushered right into the gymnasium.
“Wow,” I thought. “There’s a lot of people here.”
So I took out my cell phone and snapped a picture of the line. The photo is of people’s backs.
Chief John Powell was across from the “I” line in the “P” line and promptly came over and told me I was not allowed to photograph in a polling place.
“They are watching you,” he said ominously with a grin.
We chatted for a minute or two about the news of the day when a poll worker named Jones approached me and asked if I took a picture, to which I replied yes, to which she – rather abruptly – demanded that I delete the picture, saying it was illegal to photograph inside a polling place.
I told her I didn’t know.
As I opened my cell phone to oblige, she broadcast an announcement that there are to be no pictures, no videos and no cell phones in the polling place. Then she was back at my side.
Wait. Didn’t I see Barack Obama on the news this morning in the polling place? Don’t I have the same rights as CNN?
Jones then noticed I had video on my camera. “You have video?” she demanded.
“Most camera phones have video,” I replied calmly.
She stared.
“I didn’t take any video,” I said.
After I erased the photo in front of her, and demonstrated that I did so, she walked away.
A couple of people around me stood wide-eyed.
“That was harsh,” said one.
“I thought you were going to be handcuffed and carried away,” said the school teacher.
“There are no signs posted that you can’t take pictures,” said the man in the suit.
No. No signs. And didn’t I see Barack Obama photographed in the polling place this morning?
I felt harassed and chastised as a mother might scold her straying child. Publicly embarrassed for an inadvertent act. Singled out as a law-breaker – a criminal, mind you. Not that I shun any of that, but isn’t that a form of voter harassment? Hey John White – do I have a case?
