ENTERTAINMENT

Timberlake voting selfie removed from his social media

Clay Bailey
clay.bailey@commercialappeal.com

The blowback from Justin Timberlake’s early-voting selfie appears to have caused the entertainer to eliminate the picture from his social media accounts.

The widely publicized picture of Timberlake preparing to slide his access card into the voting machine at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Germantown has been taken down from his Twitter and Instagram account without explanation. A message accompanying the picture encouraged people to go to the polls.

Timberlake voted late Monday afternoon at the Germantown location. In addition to the picture of him preparing to vote, the singer, who is from the Millington area, also stopped for pictures with fans and at least two Germantown candidates.

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Some viewed the picture at the voting machine as a welcome promotion for people to vote in the Nov. 8 election headed by the presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

However, others noted Timberlake violated state law by taking a picture in the polling location, leading to some wondering if he would be charged with a crime.

Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich made it clear Tuesday that no one was pursuing criminal charges against Timberlake. The Tennessee secretary of state’s office issued a statement praising the entertainer “promoting voting to his millions of fans,” but that taking such pictures is not allowed.

“If polling officials discover someone violating this law they will ask the voter to put their phone away,” said Adam Ghassemi, director of communications for Secretary of State Tre Hargett.