Respect Authority

Celebrities, they’re just like us. Sometimes, their names aren’t on the list!

Actor Tim Robbins was sitting pretty (and huffy) outside a YMCA in Manhattan, after discovering his name was not on the voter lists printed and bound before each election. “They they removed my name from the voting rolls,” Robbins said. “My name was there for the primaries.”

In a Shia LaBeouf move (a la “Do you know who I am!?”), Robbins claimed the poll workers at his local spot “know him. I’ve been voting here for 15 years. The woman said she remembered me here for the primaries.”

Oh, Tim. I have no doubt the poll workers know you, but might it be because you’re like…a famous actor? Maybe Josephina PollWorker knows you from, I don’t know, Mystic River, or The Shawshank Redemption, and not from the day you showed up in dirty jeans and bizarre sunglasses to vote Barack Obama in the primary.

The biggest irony here, however, is that earlier this month, Robbins lambasted the provisional ballot strategy employed when voters’ names aren’t on the list. “Refuse provisional ballots,” he said during an appearance on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher. “They’re throwing those out. They can throw those out. If that’s your last resort, take it, but fight in the polling place to vote. It’s your right as an American. …And if you’re not on the rolls, and something went wrong, document it. Video cameras at polls are going to be an effective way to fight this election day.”

I’m not sure what Robbins thinks video cameras will accomplish except creating a flurry of YouTube videos with disgruntled Americans yelling “Fuck provisional ballots!” Maybe Robbins is just used to video cameras solving all his financial problems, and figures they’ll solve his political ones too.

Sorry Tim, better luck next time.

***Update: SERIOUSLY not one to give up on a cause, Tim Robbins apparently trekked to Lower Manhattan to obtain a court order allowing him to vote, saying he “doesn’t trust those fake paper ballot things.” (Paraphrased). Go democracy.

[NY Times]