Justin Timberlake can breathe a sigh of relief this morning after learning that an ill-advised selfie will not land him behind bars.
The over-zealous singer, 35, shared an image of himself in a voting booth to encourage his 37 million Instagram followers to vote in the increasingly stormy US Presidential elections on 8 November, alerting the attention of authorities.
Timberlake, who has come out strongly in support of Hillary Clinton, did not indicate which candidate he was voting for but did take the picture inside a polling booth while casting his vote in his home town of Memphis, Tennessee. Taking pictures and calls inside polling booths became illegal in 2015 and the picture was hastily deleted after the Shelby County DA's Office warned his case was “under review”.
No-one has actually been prosecuted since the bill was passed bringing it into effect. Maximum sentences for contravening this law are a 30-day prison sentence and $50 fine.
Fortunately for Timberlake, he will not be the first. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said in a statement on Wednesday: “No one in our office is currently investigating this matter nor will we be using our limited resources to do so.”
Tennessee Secretary of State spokesman Adam Ghassemi told the Associated Press officials are “thrilled Justin can't stop the feeling” but reminded voters to only use phones inside the booths to help themselves cast their vote.
