Wednesday, 19 March 2014 - 12:37
Voter selfies trend: stemfie
This election may be suffering from low voter-turnout, but that doesn't mean those who didn't vote already didn't have any fun doing it. This year, selfies at the municipal council elections has been officially okayed.
A new phenomenon has erupted this election Wednesday, the voter selfie, or 'stemfie' as it is now known in Dutch. Voters enter the booth, choose a candidate, and then take a picture of themselves. Add a filter and the stemfie is born.
Everyone's in on it. So much so that Minister Ronald Plasterk (Internal Affairs) got involved, saying he doesn't think it's a problem if people say they voted on Facebook or Twitter. He has officially entered it into the voting hand-guide. "Voters can take photos of themselves, if this doesn't hinder the course of the voting", the minister said.
Meanwhile, the Twitterati has been very busy with their stemfies.
http://twitter.com/MyAlterEgoist/status/446175457713876992
https://twitter.com/markmulder82/status/446180263887122432