Singer Justin Timberlake ruffled some feathers in late October after posting a selfie from the ballot box in Tennessee while voting early. Luckily for the Trolls singer, the district attorney’s office decided not to investigate or press charges, but the incident hopefully reminded voters across the country that voting is a rather serious matter. Depending on which state you live and vote in, certain aspects of the election law may prohibit — or even threaten with fines and jail time — the act of photographing oneself in a voting booth, or documenting the ballot itself.
Unfortunately for Donald Trump‘s second son, Eric Trump, it seems the do-not-take-photos-in-a-voting-booth memo didn’t arrive on his desk in time. For as New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff tweeted Tuesday morning, it seems Eric posted a photo of his own New York ballot while proudly announcing his vote for daddy with the #MakeAmericaGreatAgain hashtag.
Eric Trump gonna Eric Trump pic.twitter.com/JaM3KMhLkL
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 8, 2016
“It is an incredible honor to vote for my father!” exclaimed Eric. “He will do such a great job for the U.S.A!”
Sure enough, per a Reuters report from November 3rd highlighted by Itzkoff, a federal judge “refused to block enforcement of a New York state law barring voters from taking photographs of their marked ballots so that they could post them on social media websites.” The law, which dates back to the 19th century but allows for a modern reinterpretation to include what U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel of Manhattan dubbed “ballot selfies,” considers violations to be a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
Eric has since deleted the offending tweet, but the Internet never forgets.
(Via Dave Itzkoff on Twitter)
