Bonus points to those people who, like me, saw Laughing Jesus in the original incarnation, Playboy Magazine, back in whatever it was, ’71? Oh the outrage, too. Onto the facepalm. There’s nothing much to laugh about here, unfortunately.
Several places have started publishing their local write-ins, I only have heart enough for two. From Gwinnett county, Georgia:
Hundreds of voters in Gwinnett County chose not to cast their vote for the candidates on the ballot in last week’s presidential election.
A list from the county showed a wide range of candidates voters decided to write-in. The list includes cartoon characters, former presidents, food and celebrities.
[…]
Nearly 100 people wrote in Jesus, while 25 went with God. One person wrote in Holy Spirit. Mickey Mouse got more than 20 write-in votes.Harambe, the gorilla who was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo when a 3-year-old fell into his enclosure, got five write-in votes. Some voters went with their stomachs and cast write-in votes for pizza, a potato and “one whole grain Pop-Tart.”
You can peruse the full list here. There was also a write in for:
GIVE THIS LAND
BACK TO THE
NATIVE INDIGENOUS
TRIBES,
REPARATIONS TO
DESCENDANTS OF
AFRICANS, DESTROY
BABYLON, STOP
MILITARY AND
PRISON INDUSTRIAL
COMPLEX, STOP
RACE/GENDER/SEXU
ALITY/RELIGIOUS
DISCRIMINATION,
END POLICE STATE,
PROTECT THE
ENVIORNMENT
Now some of that is a lovely sentiment, and some admirable goals,* to be sure, but what in the fuckety fuck did this person think this would accomplish? Outside of being on a very modestly viewed blog, not one damn thing. What would have made a difference? A vote for Clinton. The linked .pdf is 138 pages of write ins. One idiot took the time to write in “We Are Doomed”, but just couldn’t bring themselves to do the right thing, like all the other idiots. And yes, if you decided to go with a write-in, you’re an idiot. You’re an idiot because it was screamingly obvious this particular vote was binary. One of two choices. All these people showed up to vote, just so they could demonstrate not voting. Never has the failure mode of clever been more apparent.
NJ.com reports there were 1,695 write-ins in Gloucester County. That’s compared to 384 write-ins in 2012. I have no doubt there’s similar in every single county in every single state. We can thank all these decidedly not clever people for being on the sinking boat on a sea of fascism we now find ourselves in. I think that puts Jesus’s laughter on the hysterical side.
*Absolutely clueless on that Babylon thing.
But Clinton won the popular vote!!! But the popular vote doesn’t matter -- so why are you berating the people who threw their popular votes away? I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s inconsistent reasoning.
(for the record: I did vote for Clinton)
On a mean day I think that some people actually deserve Trump. Problem is that those who don’t will feel it first and that there are some things nobody actually deserves, no matter how stupidly they acted.
Marcus:
Is there some reason I should fucking care about that? I think that all the assholes who showed up to vote in order to not vote could have made a big difference, and I think they should be well and truly ashamed, rather than thinking they are oh so fucking clever.
Giliell:
Right there with you. I read today that Kevin Cramer, republican asshat of nDakota, who beat Chase Iron Eyes, is being considered for the post of Energy Secretary. Cramer is pretty much made of oil, he’s in massive debt to them, and he’s a white nationalist, who absolutely hates Indians. So, am I seriously fucking angry with all these assholes who thought they were being clever? Fuck yes.
In Australia we refer to write in votes as voting informal. It’s fairly common because we have compulsory voting. I have a friend who used to count ballots and she reckons people write some amazing things on ballot papers. Dick & ball drawings were the most common but some people would go to amazing lengths. Her favourite was someone who took the time to cover their entire senate ballot sheet (Colloquially referred to as the tablecloth due to its size) in an epic poem complete with a rhyme scheme and breaks between the stanzas. She wanted to at least take a copy of that to read later but of course such is not allowed. Seems a lot of wasted effort considering all that happens is the counter throws it in the bin for shredding.