If you're thinking of taking an election day selfie in the polling booth today, be careful about what you include in the photograph: technically, it could land you in jail.
The Department of the Environment is warning voters that it's an offence to violate the secrecy of the ballot - and points to two near-identical parts of Irish law which are aimed at maintaining the privacy of the ballot.
Here's part (b) of Paragraph 4 of Section 106 of Part XIV of Schedule 2 of the rules attached to the European Parliament Elections Act, 1997 (no, really):
A person shall be guilty of an offence if, at a European election, except for some purpose authorised by law, the person—
[...]
(b) communicates at any time to any other person any information obtained in a polling station as to the candidate for whom a voter in that station is about to vote or has voted, or as to the number on the back of the ballot paper issued to a voter at that station
The general spirit of the law here is that you're not meant to interrupt someone else's voting process. In layman's terms, that means you can't physically block someone from taking their ballot paper, from trying to mark their vote on it, ask them how they voted, try to encourage them to show you their completed ballot paper (or even the number on the back). look over their shoulder and announce who they're voting for, or stop them from putting their completed paper into the ballot box.
Imagine, for example, if you were in a polling station and a major party leader walked into the booth beside you - with their European Parliament ballot paper in hand. Which of their two candidates might the leader give their first preference to? Would it be a scandal if the leader had, in the secrecy of the ballot, decided not to give one of their candidates any preference at all?
Does it count for your own ballot?
However, if you take part (b) at face value, the rules could technically also apply to your own ballot paper too.
These laws were written in 1997 - way before the age of camera phones, let alone tweets - but taking a selfie also poses a bigger risk.
Technically, if you post a photograph of your completed ballot paper, you are violating the secrecy of the ballot (even though the only privacy you are violating is your own). But beware - just be careful you don't accidentally include someone else's ballot paper in the corner of your photo; if you include anything that don't identify someone else's polling intention either.
There's one other thing to be careful of: don't include, either on your own ballot paper or anyone else's, any identification number on the back of your ballot paper. Most ballots have a unique number, which is printed simply so the polling staff can keep tabs of the number of ballot papers they've actually issued.
If you knew the unique number on the back of a party leader's ballot paper, you could then tell people to look out for that ballot paper in the count centre - and figure out exactly how that influential person had voted.
And as for the permissions... they're not to be taken lightly. If you commit an offence under the European Parliament Elections Act, 1997:
(a) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment, or
(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £2,500 or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
In layman's terms: if you plead guilty, it's a fine of £1,000 (€1,270) and potentially six months in jail. If you plead not guilty, and are then convicted in a trial, it's a fine of £2,500 (€3,174) - and potentially two years in jail.
