MEMPHIS, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Millennials have been the subject of seemingly endless election pleas from celebrities looking to drive up the youth vote this year.
But as one celebrity unwittingly demonstrated this week, sometimes that outreach can backfire, albeit without much by way of consequences.
Voters under 30 have likely followed pop icon Justin Timberlake since before they were even old enough to vote. In a sincere gesture aimed at trying to increase voter turnout, Timberlake flew from California to his native Tennessee on Monday to cast an early ballot in his hometown of Memphis.
While doing so, he did what all good Millennials do to raise awareness for the cause -- he snapped a selfie and posted it on Instagram.
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The photo garnered more than 440,000 likes, but unfortunately for Timberlake, it also served to draw attention to an increasing problem for poll workers -- in many states, using a camera (including a camera phone) inside a polling place is technically illegal.
Though rarely enforced, many states, including Tennessee, prohibit voters from taking photos with their ballots. With the popularity of selfies reaching near saturation level among younger voters versus even just four years ago, the number of violators is sure to go up.
Some states, such as New Jersey, are trying to reverse laws and permit election booth selfies like Timberlake's as a means of increasing transparency and general awareness about Election Day and early voting. In other states, lawmakers have rejected such attempts as a potential violation of voter privacy and the right to cast a secret ballot.
Though technically illegal, the rules against voting selfies are almost impossible to enforce. The likelihood a poll worker would call the police for someone photographing themselves is nil. It is even less likely the person would get caught unless the poll worker were standing close enough to notice, which in many states might also qualify as an illegal attempt to intimidate a voter.
For the record, in Tennessee it is legal to use a phone or other Internet device inside a polling place to aid in voting, but it is illegal to take photos in the voting booth.
For Timberlake, who posed for entirely legal photos with fans outside the polling place when he was done voting, it did not appear election workers reprimanded him for the quick snapshot.
