OF COURSE MICKEY MOUSE pulled write-in votes all across the Floyd County ballot in this election, as the Disney creation always seems to do. When so many of the candidates are actually Goofy running under a human alias what else should one expect?

Such votes reflect either a sense of humor or an annoyance with so many of the offices having only unopposed incumbents seeking them. A “none of the above” option would probably make Mickey and similar disappear.

This election’s prize for a protest vote has to go the voters of Athens-Clarke County who cast more than 4,000 write-ins for long-dead Charles Darwin, upon whom the theory of evolution is usually blamed as though science and observation of nature had nothing do with it. The effort to bring Darwin back to life was sparked by the incumbent Republican congressman in those parts, running unopposed, having declared that the Earth is less than 6,000 years old.

Actually, Darwin likely pulled even more votes than that but the other counties in the congressional district largely decided not to count the write-ins, perhaps in fear of further embarrassing their officeholder who, by the way, is also a medical doctor and serves on the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology.

American politics really is goofy, isn’t it?