With all the superficial distractions like a historic vote electing the nation's first African American president, you may have missed a really important story:

How actor Tim Robbins will do almost anything to cast his ballot. (See photo.)

He apparently had difficulty voting in one lower Manhattan precinct on Nov. 4 because his name wasn't on the voters list, so he rejected a paper ballot and called an official a "corrupt scumbag" and sued immediately to let him pull the lever anyway, which he did.

Thank goodness for Tim. And America!

Well, as it turns out, Robbins was not on that precinct's list of voters because Timbo is registered in another precinct. Oh, never mind.

But now, in a clever little bit of institutional PR pointed out by our pals over at TMZ.com, New York City's Board of Elections has asked the angry actor to help it with some public service ads.

"We also recognize and applaud that passion Mr. Robbins exhibited with regard to his election day experience," a board announcement says.

"Therefore, to harness the passion of Mr. Robbins, and to further the purpose of the NYC BOE, we hereby extend our invitation to Mr. Robbins to join the NYC BOE to produce voter-participation service announcements."

TMZ has the full story here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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