Ballot selfies are back, and the state House will get to vote on them

DENVER — A Colorado House panel has approved a bill that would legalize the posting of ballot selfies on social media sites.

But the bill‘s sponsors deleted a proposed ban on vote trading. Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert had insisted a vote trading ban be part of the legislation.

Democratic Rep. Paul Rosenthal and Republican Rep. Dave Williams said Wednesday their bill affirmed voters’ First Amendment rights.

But Staiert said posting ballot selfies encourages vote trading — in which people, sometimes from different states, exchange promises to vote a certain way and use selfies to prove they did so.

The House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee voted 8-1 to send the bill to the full House.

A U.S. district judge has ruled that Colorado can’t enforce an 1891 law preventing voters from disseminating their marked ballots. The ruling is temporary.