Report: Cops Called After Tim Robbins Told He Couldn't Vote

Actor Tim Robbins was not happy when told he would have to vote by provisional ballot in New York on Tuesday, TMZ.com is reporting.

The actor and well-known liberal activist became enraged when officials at his usual polling location in New York informed him that his name was not on the register, the Web site reports. Polling authorities asked him to fill out a provisional ballot instead of using the machine.

Robbins, 50, who lives with partner Susan Sarandon and has been registered to vote in New York since 1988, said he doesn't trust paper or affidavit ballots because "oftentimes those things get lost or thrown away." So he did not submit his and asked to speak to a supervisor.

I stayed in the voting place and asked to see someone from the Board of Elections and told them I wasn't going to leave until someone from the Board of Elections came and explained to me why I wasn't being allowed to vote — why my name had been taken off the voter rolls."

The supervisor said a police officer had been called over, he said, "at which point, I said to him, 'Are you trying to intimidate me?"' The police at the location said he had "every right to be there," said Robbins, well-known as a liberal activist who even played a candidate running for the Senate in "Bob Roberts," a 1992 film he also wrote and directed.

Police said there was no police involvement.

Determined to vote, Robbins went all the way to the City Board of Elections to obtain proof that he was a registered voter, TMZ.com says.

TMZ.com later caught up with the "Shawshank Redemption” star, who told them that he was "not the only one [who had a problem voting.]"

"While I was waiting, according to poll workers, 30 people in the first five hours of voting have been taken off the rolls, so you do the math on that. Six per hour, per district across America…"

"If anything it seems like a random thing, but in randomness there are numbers. And there have been in the past," said Robbins, who said that other voters also were not listed.

"This is just one example of how difficult it is to vote in the United States," he said.

Before disappearing to finalize his Election Day business, Robbins told TMZ.com to "go vote!"

Click here see the video and read more from TMZ.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.