Mr. Gregory C. Soumas
Board of Elections in the City of New York
Executive Office
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004-1609
November 17, 2008
Dear Mr. Soumas:
I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th St. poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am. If Ms. Williamson saw my name in the book in September that would mean that you are lying. Certainly you wouldn't lie about a thing like that. That is unbecoming of a man of your bureaucratic stature. And why would anyone in the Board of Elections be eliminating legitimate voters from the rolls in late September and October of 2008? That's just crazy and un-democratic.
I should also apologize for the misguided actions of Justice Paul G. Feinman in issuing a court order on Election Day allowing me to vote on 14th St. He apparently thought that a printed out record from your own Board of Elections computer verifying my polling place as 14th St was justification for issuing the court order. If he had only thought to contact you, you could have helped him understand the logic and wisdom of eliminating my name from the book on 14th St. where I have always voted and leaving my name registered at a place I have never voted.
I must also thank you for sending your letter not to me but to all the major newspapers in the New York area and across the internet. I understand it was your way of clearing up this matter and for that I am grateful. I am particularly appreciative of your sending a copy of my voter registration card with my home address and driver's license number to all the newspapers and, by extension, to millions across the internet. What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right? I was thinking of returning that favor by publishing your home address in this letter but then I thought that maybe one of the thousands of New Yorkers that were taken off the voter rolls in the last two months might not understand what a patriotic upstanding man you are and might show up at your doorstep with the misguided assumption that you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag.
Tim Robbins
New Yorker since 1961
Voter since 1976
P.S. If anyone reading this letter had a similar experience on Election Day it can and should be reported at 866ourvote.org.
cc:
Commissioners of Elections
Marcus Cederqvist, Executive Director
George Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director
Pamela Perkins, Administrative Manager
Beth Fossella, Coordinator, Voter Registration
Steven H. Richman, General Counsel
Troy Johnson, Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk
Loading comments… 
And I'm sorry for your troubles.
Steve Ettlinger
I was allowed to vote.
I signed on this Huffington post to ask a question to you personally
government operation that John Edwards brought to the Democratic ticket, that could possibily win the
nomination
I voted with a provisiona
I got my ballot in the mail three days after the election was over.
Last local election I had to sign using my former married last name though I have been re-married for two years.
This year I had to send in two change of address applicatio
Don't rest until that little postcard with your voter info and pin# are in your hand.
Bye, bye!
I sure am glad we have these Republican Patriots stealing our Votes and pointing a finger at the Acorn people. Without them, we would be lost. I am also glad we have a great Patriot like George Bush in the White House. He showed us all how to commit acts of Treason against the Country and get away with it by outing top-secret CIA agents and spying on the American people while lying about it. All of the people that still support the Republican Party, after everthing they have done to this country, are the greatest Patriots in the world. They are also some of the smartest minds we have ever seen. Thank you for being a sniveling little whiner over trivial things like being purged from the Voter rolls. I sure will be glad when the Democrats leave office in 8 years so we can be led into more disaster and division and be robbed of our treasury once again, like the good old days.
I hope you and your lawyers are preparing a suit for the damage he caused releasing your personal informatio
In Arizona, we are fighting with just such incompeten