Fierce. (Photo: Tumblr)

The Instagram army is out in full force today, smartphone drones snapping pics of every step of the democratic process, from the long polling lines to the braggadocious "I voted" stickers. But here's a helpful PSA for anyone voting in New York state: those cutesy Instas could actually (technically) land you a misdemeanor.

According to Think Progress, sharing a ballot (or a photo of a ballot) after you've marked down your choice could actually be against New York State voter laws. NY Election Law 17-130 reads that a citation is in order for any person who "shows his ballot after it is prepared for voting, to any person so as to reveal the contents, or solicits a voter to show the same." The Citizen Media Law Project confirms that "photos or filming of own marked ballot" is prohibited.

Many states have laws forbidding voters to take and share photos of their ballots, whether they're marked or not, including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada and Texas. Gizmodo has a breakdown of the laws in each state. (Of course, word's still out on whether or not anyone's actually been given a misdemeanor for Facebooking their marked ballot this year.)

Many of these laws were put in place in the 19th century when vote buying was much more prevalent, NYU law professor Adam B. Cox told Betabeat. "It is true in many states that it's a violation of election law," he said. "Before we had secret ballots, there was a lot of vote buying, so it's not surprising that a lot of states prohibit you from showing your ballot after you marked it up."

As for New Yorkers, will your vote be invalidated if you're caught applying the Nashville filter to your Obama-marked ballot? J.C. Polanco, commissioner for the New York City Board of Elections, said on Twitter that it's not quite that serious. "Checked w General Counsel for u, no [your vote won't be disqualified]. But don't delay lines by taking pictures- sites are busy, glad you are engaged," he tweeted.

(Photo: The Atlantic)

Superstorm Sandy washed and blew away some polling places and displaced thousands of residents in New York and New Jersey. New Jersey, in an effort to make sure every voice is heard, has enabled voting via email.

New York didn't want to go with the email voting option because officials feel it might be vulnerable to fraud.

Writing in Norman's "Security Exposed" blog, Norman's vice president and GM Darin Andersen examines the problem of email voting.

Mr. Andersen writes that polling machines may have their own security problems but admits there hasn't been reliable evidence of hacker interference in previous elections. However, Mr. Andersen is wary of email voting:

In light of a natural disaster, email voting seems like a fair solution, but unfortunately, today’s sophisticated malware is a real threat to voting processes. I urge affected New Jersey residents to opt for voting at an alternative polling location if they haven’t already submitted an absentee ballot. In the future, I believe that with strict regulations and the correct cyber defense measures in place, innovative internet-based voting could enable quicker and more convenient voting and ballot counting processes.

In worst-case scenarios any vote could be compromised. They could be changed via theoretical (but entirely doable) man-in-the-middle attacks, snatched by Mr. Andersen's feared "sophisticated malware" if sent via email. Or voters could arrive at polling places to find machines just aren't there. Casting a vote remains a big, national act of faith that the system will ultimately work.

At least voting machines aren't accompanied by banner ads. Yet.

Don't do this. (screengrab)

The Argonne National Laboratory's Vulnerability Assessment Team specializes in assessing security weaknesses. They examine physical devices like locks, seals, security tags--and voting machines. How easy is it to hack certain brands of voting machine? Turns out Argonne's Roger Johnston discovered it was way too easy to hack the touchscreen Diebold Accuvote-TSX. That’s a little alarming, since versions of this machine will be used to cast up to 9 million votes on Tuesday, November 6th. (You know, tomorrow.)

In an article in Popular Science magazine, Mr. Johnston explained that he used a "man-in-the-middle" hack on one of the Diebold machines, simply attaching a small microprocessor that allowed him to essentially interfere with whatever the voter intended to do. Worse still, Mr. Johnston says you can do this with pretty much any voting machine, because as far as he knows, most of them are not encrypted. One thing, however, works against any would-be voting machine hacker's malevolent, vote-stealing intentions:

The attacks require physical access. This is easy for insiders, who program the machines for an election or install them. And we would argue it’s typically not that hard for outsiders. A lot of voting machines are sitting around in the church basement, the elementary school gymnasium or hallway, unattended for a week or two before the election. Usually they have really cheap cabinet locks anyone can pick; sometimes they don’t even have locks on them. No one signs for the machines when they show up. No one’s responsible for watching them. Seals on them aren’t much different from the anti-tamper packaging found on food and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Think about tampering with a food or drug product: You think that’s challenging? It’s really not. And a lot of our election judges are little old ladies who are retired, and God bless them, they’re what makes the elections work, but they’re not necessarily a fabulous workforce for detecting subtle security attacks.

Mr. Johnston also said anyone with a little money and know-how could take over a machine with a $10 remote-controlled device, writing, "I want to move it to the point where grandma can't hack elections. We're not there."

For such a serious subject, the video below has a ridiculously incongruous soundtrack. But it illustrates exactly how a voting machine hack might work.

RoboRomney, which you're likely to start seeing in your Facebook Newsfeed, is on the more incisive end of the political meme-critiques (meme-tiques?).

It's a single-serving web site that inputs your political positions on a list of topics and spits back matching Romney quotes and video montage, showing that Mitt has--at one point, at least--supported every position you could possibly take on an issue.

Tell the site you have liberal views on tax reform? It spits back Mr. Romney saying, “We can raise taxes on the people that are under the age of 55, that’s one way we can do it. And one is to say we’re gonna raise the retirement age, well that alone would… well I said we could raise taxes.” Punch in that you're more of a moderate? You get a shifting perspective: “Unless we’re going to rein in excessive federal spending, holding down taxes would mean unacceptable deficits.” Identify with the far-right? Well, there's a Romney for that too: "I’m not a fan of raising taxes. The government takes enough from the American people.”

A diligent--or extremely bored--Redditor cataloged all of the site's possible responses.

Sorry, Mitt. Even a fake Twitter army can't save you from the wrath of Redditors.

Political power? Purrfect. (Photo: Facebook)

Social media has played an increasingly important role in elections over the years--just ask the Obama campaign for confirmation on that. But there's one frisky feline who's using the platform to drum up support for a Halixfax mayoral campaign. Meet Tuxedo Stan the cat: He's running for mayor in Canada, because why the fuck not?

Mr. Stan began his campaign back in June when he founded the Tuxedo Party, hoping to raise awareness about improving "the welfare of felines 'because neglect isn't working.'" So far, he's amassed close to 1,000 Facebook fans and has established an entire political machine surrounding his platform. There's tons of campaign swag, including buttons, signs and tshirts. Mr. Stan even has an international outfit over in the Netherlands. And he did it all with the help of an active Facebook page.

In addition to addressing the stray cat problem in Halifax, Mr. Stan has also adopted a firm formal wear platform: "Tuxedos will be mandatory at city hall when I'm elected mayor," he wrote on his Facebook page. "We need to improve our image."

When reached for comment, Mr. Stan said, "Meow."