Editor’s Pick
NOVEMBER 20, 2008 10:16PM
Voter Switched from Franken to Lizard People in MN
I was unable to speak when I saw this real ballot in the Coleman-Franken Minnesota Sentate race on Chris Matthews' Hardball tonight...
Clearly, this Minnesota voter changed his or her vote from Al Franken to The Lizard People. Minnesota Public Radio today offered the following helpful details...
This Beltrami County voter cast their ballot for Al Franken, but also put "Lizard People" as a write-in candidate, not only in the U.S. Senate race, but for several others. The county auditor/treasurer ruled that the vote should not be counted because it's considered an overvote. Representatives for Franken challenged that decision. (MPR Photo/Tom Robertson)
Two important points -
1. Even though a radio is involved in this report, it is not a "War of the Worlds" Orson Welles hoax - this ballot was really cast.
2. Although I do want Al Franken to win, it could be even more important to determine who, exactly, are "The Lizard People," and why this "Beltrami" voter wrote in their name...
Theories abound -
a - Reports of The Lizard People go back at least as far as 1933, Los Angeles...
b - On the science fiction side, there may be a Dr. Who connection ...
c - But, my favorite, and what I see as most likely, explanation hearkens back to Ken Johnson's brilliant 1982 V mini-series. In an age just before cable, this hard-hitting series of invading reptile aliens who took the shape of humans - but still swallowed mice whole and live as snacks - was just the thing for an audience starved and hard-bitten for good science fiction on television. V's sequel mini-series and then regular series were not quite as good, but all-in-all the V saga provided a much needed bridge between Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, the new Battlestar Galactica and all the great science fiction that we now know so well...
So what was that "Beltrami" voter trying to tell us? I believe it was a plea for V - possibly a play on words on the "V" in True Blood, short for vampire blood, which in that series is a powerful drug - but more likely a shout-out for Kenneth Johnson's 2008 novel, V: The Second Generation
, which came out this past February ...TIP:
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bill benzon
Poppi Iceland
PattyJane
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Comments
sauteed in olive oil, frizzled with chipotle, lain upon Arugula; served with a chilled Pinot Grigio.
Good places to start are The Silk Code or The Plot to Save Socrates ... :)
As far as True Blood: (pardon my stray off the reservation)
Who dunnit? Doing the actual killing:One of the highway
workers, maybe the sweet shy jock guy? Not Rene, the shoes
looked too big, or maybe the Iraq war vet, although he seems a
little obvious. I suspected the Congressman had been hovering
in the background of the killings. Oh, and Amy got off
easy, being strangled while in a blissful dream. Imagine if
the vampires had gotten a hold of her.......
http://eulep.pdn.cam.ac.uk/Necropsy_of_the_Mouse/index.php?file=Chapter_3.html
As for the voter, hmmm, it looks like the voter had a really long day and a great sense of humor. I wonder if this one vote, since it's so close, will really make a difference. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
The aliens did not remain long; they were so repulsed by the ignorance of a species that would elect a third-rate actor President that they lit out for a planet with signs of intelligent life.
The report about Franken was confirmed by a voting record discovered during the recount in Minnesota. Authorities are now investigating to see if former Minnesota governor Jesse the Body Ventura was also part of a plot by the Lizard People to take over the planet.
Just goes to show how two election judges can see the same effed up ballot and draw totally different conclusions.
What if one vote does make the difference and it's this guy? Yikes.
Like the Borg... or perhaps one collective consciousness.
If the election came down to that single vote, I wonder of Norm Coleman would publicly thank the lizard people? That would almost make it worth it.
Full disclosure. I have written in protest candidates too. Specifically "Pedro" - but ONLY in races where there was just one candidate running for the position making the actual voting process nothing more than expensive political theater. Then again, I'm from Massachusetts, where this sort of uncontested race happens a lot. I mean, really, really often.