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Snapchat is taking new steps to make sure its users' selfies are legal in more places. 

The company filed court paperwork last week as part of a legal case seeking to defend voters' right to take and share "ballot selfies" on election day.

Snapchat's filing is just the latest development in more than a year and a half of legal wrangling over whether New Hampshire voters have the right to share photos they take at the ballot box on social media. 

In September of 2014, the state of New Hampshire passed a law banning voters from sharing photos of marked ballots on social media, with those who violated the law subject to fines up to $1,000. Soon after, the ACLU challenged the law on behalf of three New Hampshire voters, saying it violated their First Amendment right to free speech.

In August 2015, a federal court sided with the ACLU and struck down the law saying it restricted free speech. But the state of New Hampshire filed an appeal to the decision, which is still making its way through the court system. This is where Snapchat's legal team stepped in to lend support to the cause of "ballot selfies."

Though Snapchat was not part of the original case, the company filed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court" brief, in United States Court of Appeals on Friday in support of the appeal. 

"Whether it's a campaign button or a selfie from the ballot box, Snapchat believes that expressing participation in the democratic process is an important part of free speech and civic engagement that the First Amendment roundly protects," a Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement provided to Mashable. 

Interestingly, in the brief, Snapchat cites its First Amendment right as a "newsgatherer" to share user-generated content. From the court filing: 

 First, ballot selfies and similar digital information-sharing are important ways that younger voters participate in the political process and make their voices heard. Second, newsgatherers like Snapchat have a First Amendment interest in disseminating user-generated content, including ballot selfies, as part of their political coverage.

The brief goes on to mount an impassioned defense of the so-called "ballot selfie," arguing that it's a "uniquely powerful form of political expression." 

A ballot selfie—like a campaign button—is a way to express support for or against a cause or a candidate. And because it is tangible proof of how a voter has voted, a ballot selfie is a uniquely powerful form of political expression. It proves that the voter’s stated political convictions are not just idle talk. Not only that, but ballot selfies and other digital expressions of civic engagement encourage others to vote—particularly younger voters who have historically low turnout rates. Ballot selfies are thus all at once deeply personal and virtuously public expressions.

And they’re the sort of expressions that the State cannot categorically ban without violating the First Amendment

New Hampshire is far from the only state to ban voters from photographing or recording their ballots while in the voting booth. Dozens of states have similar laws on the books (the specifics vary state by state, but The Huffington Post compiled a handy list outlining the policies for each state here.)

Snapchat has been covering the elections heavily in recent months; both through live stories on election day, as well as through its "Good Luck America" show, which features the company's head of news (and former CNN political reporter) Peter Hamby who reports from the campaign trail.

h/t: New York Times

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