Voter selfie ban shows itself to be absurd

With the tap of a cellphone, Millington native Justin Timberlake has demonstrated the absurdity of Tennessee’s ban on “ballot selfies.”

On Monday the pop icon and actor returned from California to his home state, where he owns property, to cast a ballot at the New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Germantown. While there, he snapped a photo of himself performing that civic duty and posted it to his Instagram account.

“Hey! You! Yeah, YOU! I just flew from LA to Memphis to #rockthevote !!! No excuses, my good people,” he challenged his followers. “There could be early voting in your town too. If not, November 8th! Choose to have a voice! If you don’t, then we can’t HEAR YOU! Get out and VOTE! #excerciseyourrighttovote.”

That’s a no-no, noted Adam Ghassemi, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.

“We’re thrilled Justin can’t stop the feeling when it comes to voting,” Ghassemi said. But “in Tennessee, using electronic devices inside polling locations to take pictures, videos or make calls is not allowed. … Tennesseans should only use their phones inside polling locations for informational purposes to assist while voting, like our free GoVoteTN mobile app.”

The GoVoteTN app, developed by the secretary of state’s office a couple of years ago for about $26,000, provides information such as polling locations, candidate lists and districts. It has been downloaded some 32,000 times since its launch.

Timberlake, whose latest hit is “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” has about 37.2 million followers on Instagram.

The General Assembly passed and Gov. Bill Haslam signed the bill banning ballot selfies last year. The law went into effect Jan. 1.

Many states have similar bans, the ostensible purpose of which is to prevent vote-buying. The theory is that citizens will take bribes from political bosses then use selfies to prove they’ve delivered the goods.

The risk of that actually happening is so minuscule, however, that such laws have been struck down as unconstitutional. Last year in New Hampshire, for instance, U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro found that state’s selfie ban violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free expression.

A federal appeals court upheld that ruling last month.

There is no actual or imminent problem in Tennessee either. In fact the impetus for the law is baffling. Unlike other voter legislation, selfie bans have not been pushed by one party or the other. In New Hampshire, Republican legislators challenged the law, which was backed by the Democratic secretary of state. In Tennessee it was the GOP that wanted to suppress selfies.

In any event, Timberlake’s message encouraging fans to vote has shown how counterproductive the law is.

At first the Shelby County district attorney general’s office said Timberlake’s post would be under review for possible violation of state election law. But the office quickly backtracked.

Today, selfies are a nearly universal way of sharing exuberance over life’s bright moments. Banning Tennesseans from such self-expression when voting is unnecessary, unconstitutional and, dare we say, un-American. The law should be changed at the earliest opportunity.