Robbins urges Americans to vote against Bush

Political activist and Oscar-winner Tim Robbins used his victory to urge Americans to vote against George W. Bush in November's polls.

Political activist and Oscar-winner Tim Robbins used his victory Sunday of the best supporting actor Oscar to urge Americans to vote against US President George W. Bush in November's polls.

HT Image

Green party activist and arch rival of Bush's policies, Robbins said backstage after accepting his statuette that eligible voters should register and vote if they wanted to keep Bush from winning a second term in office.

"Register to vote," he said when asked by reporters if he was nervous about a second Bush victory at the polls later this year.

"Get involved with the process. Get other people to vote... I'm really nervous about computerized elections," he said referring to an overhaul of voting systems following the massive confusion in 2000 that resulted in Bush taking the White House after the Supreme Court stopped vote recounts.

It's the "first time in our democracy that you can't have a recount" he said of new electronic voting machines in some states that obviate "hanging chads" and "pregnant chads" that sowed confusion and left Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in the cold.