Music

Voting booth selfie could land Justin Timberlake in jail

by Richard Howard

You know the saying “no good deed goes unpunished?” Well, Justin Timberlake may be about to prove that right. See, lovable ol’ JT decided, as he often does, to use his position as an influencer to convince fans to do the right thing: in this case, get out and vote.

He posted a pic to Instagram yesterday showing him getting his early vote on in his home state of Tennessee and urged his 37 million followers to do the same.

Good stuff, right? Slight problem, though – it turns out a law was passed in Tennessee last year prohibiting voters from “using a phone for conversations, recording, or taking photos or videos while inside the polling place.” Womp womp. I’m sure there’s no need to worry, though. With much bigger issues going on, I doubt anyone’s going to pursue this – oh wait, what was that, Shelby County DA’s office?

The Shelby County DA’s office was made aware of a possible violation of state election law. The matter is under review of the DA’s office. The law itself TCA2-7-142(B). The offense is a state class C misdemeanor. Any person convicted of this violation could be sentenced up to 30 days or fined no more than $50 or both.

Damn, son. I guess even multi-millionaire entertainers with dashing 5 o’clock shadows and killer dance moves aren’t above election law relating to third-rate misdemeanors. By the way, just to add insult to injury, should Timberlake be charged he would be the first individual prosecuted under the new law. Gosh, I hope he can pony up that $50.

[h/t EW.com]