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.
