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: Inquisitr)

If you're not already particularly picky about who you friend on Facebook, you might want to think about rejiggering those privacy settings. According to GigaOm, a New York City federal judge ruled in a recent racketeering trial that it's legal for police to view your Facebook profile if one of your friends grants them permission. Better start sniffing out the rats on your friends list.

Writes GigaOm:

In an order issued on Friday, US District Judge William Pauley III ruled that accused gangster Melvin Colon can’t rely on the Fourth Amendment to suppress Facebook evidence that led to his indictment....The informant’s Facebook friendship served to open an online window onto Colon’s alleged gangster life, revealing messages he posted about violent acts and threats to rival gang members. The government used this information to obtain a search warrant for the rest of Colon’s Facebook account.

In related news, Ars Technica discovered that Facebook is now actually erasing the pictures you delete from its servers, so if you're worried about any of your friends narcing on you, you should probably start deleting right about...now.

Not a terms of service violation. (theoatmeal.com)

Round three of The Oatmeal versus FunnyJunk isn't looking so great for the latter.

For those just tuning in: Earlier this week, accused of defamation and faced with a demand he immediately fork over $20,000 in damages, Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the money. However, he proposed to split it between the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. FunnyJunk's lawyer then alleged that the campaign was a violation of Indiegogo's terms of service and that he would be petitioning the crowdfunding site to remove it.

Well,  it turns out that Indiegogo does not agree with that assessment. The company just sent us the following statement:

"Indiegogo has not seen any behavior to cause us to believe that this campaign doesn’t comply with Indiegogo's Terms of Service.”

We take that to mean that Indiegogo has no intention of removing Mr. Inman's fundraiser, which has, as of this moment, raised a whopping $170,012.

Mr. Inman's lawyer has also released a formal response to FunnyJunk's charges, which is available in full on Scribd.