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

Comments

[georgiaR]

I am confused. I live in California and before election day I always get something in the mail telling me where my polling place is. Did Mr. Robbins get this?

[rektruax]

They don't do that here...

[Emlyn]

And why not?

[Star2000dancer]

Yes they do. I live in NY all my life, & they send me a registration card, but not in 2000 or 2004.

[dollardream]

RIGHT ON!
RIGHT ON!
RIGHT ON!

[MissingAmerica]

Great letter! I have always had enormous respect for Mr. Robbins, and I can't begin to understand how he must have felt when they pulled this one on him!

[Marastan]

This was the wrong voter to mess with on Election day. Well Done Mr Robbins.

[GingerB]

Mr. Robbins, I love your acting, but I love your political activism even more. Your letter to Mr. Soumas was right on. I'm appalled that the scum.bag not only tried to take your vote away, but published your private information. I hope he gets what he deserves.

[jimitee]

Tim, I understand your anger. If I had not been able to cast my vote in the most important election within our lifetime, I would likely still be sitting in Rykers Island for assault and battery.

The good news is all your hard work paid off. We WON!!!!

[ReasoNseeKer]

What's funny about this is that Gregory M. Soumas is a democrat.

[antaeus]

What's up with that?

[neoprimordial]

Maybe it was an honest mistake, or maybe it was some agent provocateur BS goings on. It feels like something is being unreported or underreported about this incident.

[frenchie25]

imagine all of the other people throughout NY and the rest of the country who found themselves in the same situation on election day but who didn't have the time, capacity or resoucrces to deal with it like you did, Tim. How many people got blown off and how many votes got tossed?

Thanks for bringing some light into a dark place. Man, did they pick on the wrong guy to eff with!

[ChandraSF]

Don't get mad, get even - best advice from my grandma. Well done, Tim!

[amagila]

You tell'em, brother!

[dessertsfirst]

Tim, I loved your letter.
Very well done, and the points surely were not lost "in the translation". Thank you so much for the way in which you called out this so - called elected official (he's supposed to represent all of the constituents, right? in a fair and above-board manner, right.... oh yeah, he did the above-board thing by sending his letter to all of those public entities).

[bjammin]

Wow, Tim, he really did that? Utterly disgraceful.

Nice takedown, too, by the way. Seldom has a man deserved opprobrium to be heaped upon him more. Heap away, I say, sir!

[ThePeacemakers]

Folks, this election would have been a landslide of epic proportions. And that scared the establishment.
There are new voters that arrived on the last legal day for registration that did not get on the rolls.
I know this because I stood in line with them in Cali. And they were all about Obama I was doing a change of address. It never made it thru but I was still at the old address where I'd been registered.
So I have to assume the lines of voters registering for the first time - many of them got a surprise on election day when they didn't make the rolls.

[plunk]

Tim, you and Susan were the one of the few people who dared spoke up when things turned weird back in 2001. Your family took some of the first hits and experienced the brunt of BushCo's creeply attack practices. Ever since those dark days, you and your family have been at the top of my cool list. Keep on truckin. You rock big time.

[sonshine]

I hate that this happened to you citizen Tim, but you are the best person it could have happened to. If it had happened to citizen Marie in Prince George's County Maryland, now matter how hard I would have fought--and believe you me, I fight for my constitutional rights--the general public would never have been alerted to the crazy, stupid and downright unconstitutional actions of voter purging and other voter rights violations that occur all the time all over this nation. What's even better Tim, is that we know, you. You don't take stuff lying down so you stood up and you spoke out. Not good what happened to you but you are a great representative for the little people who would suffer the same illegal behavior with no consequences.

Keep being a bur in the side of those who would try to deprive U.S. citizens of our rights!

Go Tim Robbins!!! Say hello to Susan and the kids too. We love you!