An Open Letter to the New York City Board of Elections
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
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Soumas is a Democrat, elected to the post of District Leader in the 69th Assembly District. It makes no sense that a Democrat would want to prevent a well-known Obama supporter from voting! It must of been a terrible, bureaucratic snafu as poster blp suggested. Perhaps Mr. Soumas was just doing his job given the crap that he was given to work with, with no malice aforethought.
Oh yes. I'm sure that it was a terrible mistake that Soumas sent Mr. Robbins' private information to the press. Yeah, right. Thanks for playing "Are you smarter than a 5-year old?".
I understand your sympathy for Mr. Soumas' difficult position, but WHY would he print/post ANYONE'S address and driver's license in such a matter.
It discounts his position of innocence.
Perhaps Soumas is a Lieberman Democrat..
Right On Tim Robbins!!!!!!!!!!
But Brutus was a noble man . . . so are they all, all noble men.
Love the rhetoric, Tim. Just right. He is indeed a noble man.
But you are, indeed, really a noble man. A real noble man.
No Bull Man? I'd concur!
Brilliant and brave letter, Tim. I hate to admit this, but I am actually somewhat glad that this happened to you -- you with a huge public megaphone to call this out. Think of the many thousands who this has happened to across the country, and how their individual situation, enraging as this was for you, was never paid attention to in the way your situation has been.
We can put a very likable face and name onto this situation. We feel we know you, and we don't like it when someone we feel we know has been wronged. And someone with your wit and backbone to boot -- they picked the wrong guy to f- with on election day. And hey, Tim, when they are lashing out at you, as the public letter the @##hole published with your address, it means you got to them -- you're under their skin and they are defensive. Good stuff. Means you're doing something right here.
So, it sucked for you, and you've paid a price, but in a sense, the fact that it was you was potentially a really good thing for the rest of the voters in the country. You are a fantastic advocate -- you have soul, and you use your celebrity to try to make the world a better place. In this instance, the universe used you and your celebrity against your will, but here you are, champion for the disenfranchised. Good job.
Voter registration isn’t private information - it’s public information. If you go down to the election office (or county courthouse) and ask to see the voter registration rolls they will show them to you in a big book. Was it vindictive for the dept. of elections to send his information out? Probably. But any of the reporters that received it (as well as any of us) can simply walk into their office and ask to see the rolls. You can even write into them asking for the info…
Unfortunately, it is true that voter registration information isn't private. Many elections offices actually have a public terminal that the general public can use to view a version of all registered voters in that state. As a training tool, the county where I live often has new employees search for "celebrity" information. From the public terminal, however, not all of the voter's information is made available. Things like social security number, driver's license number, and phone numbers are not available in the public record. It does give the voter's address, the party they have registered with, and their voting record i.e. how many elections they've voted in over all the years they've been registered.
I applaud Tim Robbins for the stance he took on election day. We heard about it quickly in my state. I personally encountered "polling place" problems at my early voting location. It took 4 hours for the problem to be resolved. I managed to get the local CBS-affiliate onsite later that day when more than 1/2 of all ballots that day were finally scanned after the polls closed. One by one, we can make a difference.
Voter registration may not be private, but what about his driver's license number? Is that freely available to the public as well?
Voter address such as home address may be public record, but it's one thing to be available to the public and another thing completely to broadcast it across many media channels. Your address is probably searchable in the white pages or on google, but would you like for someone to take ads out in the papers publishing it? Probably not.
Excellent post littleddemocrat. So Celestine Prophecy. I hope Tim Robbins reads and saves it.
BRAVO Mr Robbins, Bravo Sir!
hey man, this made my day...love
i need to fly to NY from Seattle just to buy you a beer...you
Whew. Great letter. Disgraceful set of circumstances, but alas not unique or passing. It's the new Democracy.
Next installment: did he get his knuckles rapped or his position jerked?
First there was Motion Picture Assoc. of America's (MPAA) rating system for film Then came the Recording Industry Assoc. of America's (RIAA) music advisory labels and finally the TV rating system Parental Advisory Labels, which exempted sports and information programs. Now we need a News Quality Rating System that rates news quality based on adherence to journalistic rigor. Ethical journalism gets a high rating, unethical journalism gets a low rating, on screen, per news segment.
Sign the FCC News Quality Rating System at http://Fix
Yes, because we are just totally clueless and we really need Congress and the FCC to tell us how to think.
Freedom of the press allows them to report news anyway they like. If you don't like it, don't watch (or read) it.
Way to go, Tim. Amazing how it's always Democratic votes that don't get counted. I'm expecting that hundreds of newly-found votes for Al Franken will put him over the top in Minnesota.
Nice poison pen letter.
However, I would not have used Ms. Williamson name, since she was just working there and mostly likely did not scrub the name from the list. She was just doing her job. They don't get paid, so the use of her name is not to cool. She most likely will never volunteer again for anything.
This is the exact type of abuse of privacy that makes people think twice about volunteering and giving money to charities.
Timmy your scattergun needs to be fine tuned.
Oh darn! I thought it was perfect letter. Good point ccpostman. Ruined the whole effort on poor Timmy's part. Indicted himself for what he was citing another for. Hahahaha! Too bad.
Not so much. She is a public official. This fact is public knowledge and he did not reveal anything that was not already known.
Williamson was on Robbins' side, or so it sounded like. Robbins was just pointing out that Williamson disagreed with Soumas about the assertion that Robbins wasn't on the voter list in September.
If she were "just" working there she would not have sent out that letter with his personal information.
She didn't send out the letter! Soumas did. You should read Robbins' letter again.
She was on his side, and helpful. He was being sarcastic. It's praise.
How do you know he didn't get permission from her before printing story, he doesn't say one way or the other.
I was a poll worker this election in California and even though the pay isn't very much, we did get paid for the day. At the beginning of the day we were sworn in as officials of the state and that we would uphold the Constitution of California and obey voting right laws.
Should it become necessary, Mrs. Williamson had the responsibility to help the voter accomplish voting in every way and was legally bound to do so. It isn't like she is going to loose her job, in fact
mention of her by a most revered (especially by me) patriotic American as Tim Robbins probably made her year.
I love how people jump at the bit to almost disregard the whole FANTANSTIC AND SUCCINCT letter.
I DOUBLE BRAVO OTHER BRAVOS MR. ROBBINS AND THANK YOU!!
Great post, Tim. The same thing happened here in Colorado Springs (yes, home of Focus on Everyone Else's Family...I
Hey Debin,
When I went to Colorado College, there were only 1,900 students. Granted, the student body has grown since my time there, I'm sure, but I only graduated 4 years ago--surely it hasn't quadrupled. Are you sure about your 8,000 figure?
Not that I don't agree with your comment--I do--I'm just trying to set the record straight here.
My apologies for not adding that this number included students at UCCS and PPCC, many kids from other states.
You are an eloquent educated individual and no doubt deserve to VOTE. Unfortunately until we remove the uneducated dweebs from the voting roles via some type of intelligent test we will suffer from the old addage "We get the government we deserve". In our case a government filled with officials elected by the lowest common denominator of voter. Another idea to improve the quality of our representatives is to no longer let anyone getting a government check from a particular entity vote in that election, local state or federal. It is a CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Ultimately if more than 50% of the voters get a federal check they could vote themselves raises that the private sector would have no choice but to pay. We are getting pretty close to that reality actually happening. Controversial I know but that is the point, to generate discussion.
And I suppose we should leave it up to YOU to decide who is "intelligent" enough to vote.
Next you are going to say that everyone who's ever had to call the police or the fire department is beholden to the government, too, and they should not be allowed to vote, either. Same with those pesky veterans, taking government money. Take away their vote, too. And everyone who's ever gotten a tax refund has a "conflict of interest", too, right?
Oh goodie I got responses.
At one point only male land owners could vote etc etc changed throughout history.
I would sway toward individuals passing the same test foreigners pass to become a citizens. Good enough for them good enough for me. I would even allow it to be in any language. Unfortunately one would have to read to pass the test or they could take the test verbally.
Federal emplyees would be someone employed directly by a government agency or getting government assistance check. Would not be SS recipients because that is their money. Keeps the elected officials from having the compulsion to buy votes. The stimulus check nothing more than a vote payoff.
I take it you don't ever use a federal, state or local highway. According to your "logic", that should disqualify you to vote in a federal, state or local election.
If we're removing anyone from anything, I say we start with our Congresspeople and elected officials. If they can't pass a test which esablishes a working knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, then they do not get to hold office.
Think about it, does anyone believe that Saxby Chambliss or Michelle Bachmann have ever read the Constitution or understand it? We know Palin doesn't, just from her repeated claims to the job description for VP.
Other than their persistent misunderstandings of the Second Amendment, separation of Church and state and First Amendment Rights, does the GOP ever give any indication that they understand the Constitution???
Damn! Now that's how you write a letter.
I know who inspected my shirt but I don't know who's registering my vote....
.
Bravo! I love sarcastic irony.
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