Charles Darwin Gets 4,000 Write-In Votes Against Anti-Evolution Congressman

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun was quoted back in October as saying that evolution and The Big Bang Theory “come from the pits of hell,” so it’s appropriate that the father of  Evolutionary Theory made an appearance the the returns against him on Election Day:

A long-dead, 19th century British naturalist received nearly 4,000 votes against incumbent Georgia congressman Rep. Paul Broun (R) after the House member’s controversial comments at a Christian fundraiser were made public earlier this year. According to the Athens, Georgia’s alt weekly, Flagpolemagazine, the list of names written in against Broun’s stretched to an impressive 371 pages and is available for download as a .pdf here.

“I can’t ever remember seeing a (write-in ballot) report that long,” Athens-Clarke County Elections Supervisor Gail Schrader told the Athens Banner-Heraldon Thursday morning.

The campaign to write in Charles Darwin over Broun was begun by several people, including University of Georgia plant biology professor Jim Leebens-Mack. Leebens-Mack told Raw Story in October that he started the campaign and Facebook page “to let both the Democratic and Republican parties know that we’re not happy that Paul Broun is our only choice in the 10th Congressional District of Georgia.”

Broun sparked controversy when he was caught on tape decrying science to a group of Christian donors at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia. The former medical doctor and member of the House Panel on Science, Space and Technology said on September 27, “God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”

(…)

Flagpole reported that “6,773 people cast write-in votes in the 10th Congressional District race, including about 3,829 votes for Darwin. Another 23,592 people skipped over the race entirely. Only 42 percent of Athenians who voted pressed the button for Broun.

Almost 4,000 votes? Not bad for a guy who’s been dead 130 years.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Congress, Humor, Science & Technology, US Politics, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. I think his campaign was suppressed by “lifers”.

  2. Vast Variety says:

    Looks like Big Bird got a decent amount of votes to.

  3. JKB says:

    Dead and ineligible for office due to not being a citizen of the US or resident of the district.

    So their plan to show their displeasure with an ignorant candidate was to show their own ignorance of life and the Constitution. Interesting.

    Reminds me of high school where we started a write-in campaign to have Cocaine as the theme song for the prom. That was just as brilliant as this campaign and just as futile.

  4. Tsar Nicholas says:

    Hell, if Mel Carnahan’s corpse can win a U.S. Senate seat it’s only logical that Charles Darwin can win some write-in votes for a House seat.

    That aside, something just dawned on me. Not only have I never voted for a winning House candidate I’ve never even voted for someone who’s received 40%. Not only that but for more than two decades now I’ve been represented by a who’s who of liberal-socialist plutocrats, grifters and muckety mucks: Pete Stark, Ron Dellums, Barbara Lee, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Matsui and Matsui’s widow. Sad but true. Sigh.

    As far as Rep. Broun is concerned, did I read that article correctly? He has a medical degree? And he totally disavows evolution theory and the Big Bang theory? Whaaat? How is that possible? I have to presume, then, that he’s one of those extremely hard core born again Christians. Wow. Just, wow.

  5. john personna says:

    @JKB:

    I thought you were a STEM guy. Are you putting party loyalty before science?

  6. rudderpedals says:

    @Tsar Nicholas: News travels slow to the Urals.

  7. Sejanus says:

    Drats, nobody wrote in Sonichu.

  8. PogueMahone says:

    @JKB:

    Lighten up, Francis.

  9. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JKB:

    So their plan to show their displeasure with an ignorant candidate was to show their own ignorance of life and the Constitution. Interesting.

    And your plan is to show an utter lack of a sense of humor?

  10. mattb says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    And your plan is to show an utter lack of a sense of humor?

    Actually his lack of humor is demonstrated every time he attempts an ironic post here.

  11. swbarnes2 says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    As far as Rep. Broun is concerned, did I read that article correctly? He has a medical degree? And he totally disavows evolution theory and the Big Bang theory? Whaaat? How is that possible?

    Whoever you are, you have to give up that handle. There already is a poster by that name, and since he or she posts frequently, he or she is obviously a person who has internet access, and therefore knows that denying evolution is not only completely possible among well-educated Republicans, it is practically mandatory.

    If you are a hacker, well, you just gave the game away, because Tsar posts frequently, and no one who posts frequently on a political board could possibly be so astonishingly ignorant or willfully blind as to post what you posted.

  12. Franklin says:

    @JKB: I’ve been repeatedly told that it’s Democrats who have no sense of humor. Thanks for correctly that fallacy.

  13. Franklin says:

    correcting not correctly (yes, I know, Preview is my friend)

  14. CSK says:

    Broun is not only a medical doctor, he sits on the Space, Science, and Technology Committee, as does/did celebrated gynecologist Todd Akin.

    I understand that clowns like this can get elected, but how do they find their way onto science committees? I don’t even want to think about what they do and say when they get there.

  15. @JKB: Actually Mr. Constitutional Scholar, there is no requirement that a candidate nor member of the House of Representatives be a resident of a district, he or she must merely be a resident of the state.

    @CSK: Don’t forget Roscoe Bartlett (soon to be formerly of Maryland’s 6th district).