The Clockwork Mansion

Here in Buenos Aires we're having elections today, to determine who the next mayor and city deputies will be. That means they've been repaving streets for the last few months and the whole city's covered with posters of the main candidates.

But there is one poster in particular that caught my attention: it featured the top half of Shrek's head wearing a crown (probably mocking Telerman's posters which also feature the top half of his bald head), and read "The city deserves a king. Vote for him."

I wouldn't be all that surprised if some people did vote for him, considering Clemente (the main character from a newspaper comic strip) actually won an election once.

What do you think about this? Have you ever seen other funny/fake candidates like these in your areas?

Quote from: Gabi on June 03, 2007, 11:57:16 AM
I wouldn't be all that surprised if some people did vote for him, considering Clemente (the main character from a newspaper comic strip) actually won an election once.

HU-WHAAAT? That actually happened once?  :U :U :U

http://www.walken2008.com/

Christopher Walken for 2008. I believe. :C

I think the wrestler Hulk Hogan ran once, but either he was saying he would or he dropped out cause it was a joke... That's about all I can think of.

There is a reason we did away with write-in votes....

Quote from: techmaster-glitch on June 03, 2007, 01:32:55 PM

Quote from: Gabi on June 03, 2007, 11:57:16 AM
I wouldn't be all that surprised if some people did vote for him, considering Clemente (the main character from a newspaper comic strip) actually won an election once.

HU-WHAAAT? That actually happened once?  :U :U :U

Yes, it did. And the next day Clemente showed up on his strip thanking everyone who voted, but telling them he couldn't take the spot because he hadn't been running for it.

On the other hand, Ramón "Palito" Ortega, former (bad) actor and (bad) singer, was governor of the province of Tucumán for 2 consecutive periods. And if you ask me, he was bad at it too.

This is the poster I was referring to:

Didn't Michael Moore enter a tree into some election? Anyone remember how it did?

Quote from: Zina on June 03, 2007, 01:47:12 PM
http://www.walken2008.com/

Christopher Walken for 2008. I believe. :C

I would vote for him, he's prettier than the rest of them.

I may have to write-in Manny Ramirez next year.

Needs more bald.
(http://www.drchip.de/assets/images/you_don_t_know_jack_4.jpg)

Quote from: Valynth on June 03, 2007, 02:58:10 PMThere is a reason we did away with write-in votes....

You're in Alabama, right?  Looks like as recently as 2006-11, they had write-in votes (http://www.sos.state.al.us/election/2006/index.aspx).  It looks like they might not allow them for primaries or municipal elections, if this snippet is right (http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=ANSB&p_theme=ansb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=1158BC81777259E8&p_field_direct-0=document_id).

If you want to get an idea of the sort of things people write in in the US, check out the latest 2006 election results.  Roy Moore gets a lot of write-ins, Hugo Chavez gets one vote for a lot of offices (suggesting that there's one guy who wrote him in for everything that he didn't have a real vote for), and there are a few votes for George Wallace, Jr. (1919-1998) (nevermind.  It looks like George Wallace III is called George Wallace, Jr. for some reason).

Contrary to popular belief, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck do not seem to be popular write-in candidates (at least in Alabama).  Alabama may have a requirement similar to Washington, where you have to be registered as a write-in candidate in order for write-in votes for you to be counted (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/regionalpolitics/2002003080_writein12m.html).  I did, however, spy Vince Gill, Tom Jones, Charles Barkley and Bob Marley.

Some of this may seem silly, but I think the concept that write-in voters are trying to make is that they'd rather be governed by fictitious characters than by any of the bozos on the ballot, and they want The Man to know how outraged they are by this fact.  I don't think they make their message clear, but I've never voted for the winning candidate, either.

Quote from: superluser on June 03, 2007, 05:35:38 PM
Some of this may seem silly, but I think the concept that write-in voters are trying to make is that they'd rather be governed by fictitious characters than by any of the bozos on the ballot, and they want The Man to know how outraged they are by this fact.  I don't think they make their message clear, but I've never voted for the winning candidate, either.

Yes, I think that's the reason. And I've never voted for the winning candidate either.

Well, it's not like the fictional characters could do any worse than some of the real ones that get elected...

Then again, do politicians really count as "real people" anyway? Some of them seem to have a rather tenuous connection to reality...

I think, with the right advertising techniques, Chuck Norris could scoop up a good deal of young "who cares" non-voters...

       Remember the old ' Looney Tunes ' cartoon, where Bugs Bunny ran for Mayor ?

I remember that one.

He went up against Yosemite Sam, who had promised to get rid of all rabbits...

I wanna elect Todd. In Todd we trust :)

 :mowhappy Is there much in the 'donkey' vote, when you elect a mare ? Nahhhy ,,,,,    ( hooves ... (

Quote from: Netrogo on June 08, 2007, 11:10:03 AM
I wanna elect Todd. In Todd we trust :)

Now that's a candidate who'd be certain to win... if he existed.

Best I've heard of was a turtle that got called in for Jury Duty. They wouldn't let the poor guy off. Poor turtle.

Quote from: LionHeart on June 08, 2007, 08:33:31 AM
I remember that one.

He went up against Yosemite Sam, who had promised to get rid of all rabbits...

Remember how he started kissing babies, and then B.B is in a baby suite and stroller going " bad man hit me " , to get the crowd against Sam ?

   And what of our cute sword carrying feline ? A few looks with dilated eyes to the voters could do wonders. Use a bit of charm ...