Wrong.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post43175432
Nah, haha I spent a couple of hours looking through the laws as posted online and I asked my brother, who is a lawyer. It's a perfectly valid ballot.
I also learned that in Massachusetts you're entitled to a maximum of three ballots. If I tore the first one in half, I could ask for a second. If I drew a giant dong on it and defaced large portions of it, I could ask for a third. If I answered everything with an X instead of filling out an oval, the election staff is not required to give me a fourth ballot.
As far as writing outside of the designated area, you can generally write anywhere you want so long as it doesn't hinder the scantron's ability to read your fully filled in oval or constitute a purposeful large defacement (a big X). This is because some people underline what they read to help them read it and use other learning aids, particularly if English isn't their first language.
Taking a photo of my ballot could get me fined $50 and a citation (it's not even a misdemeanor), but it's never once been enforced and I though the occasion merited a modest violation.
It varies by state though. So nobody should do it just because I did, particularly in swing states.