Voting Against God in Ohio June 22, 2011

Voting Against God in Ohio

By Guest Contributor
June 22, 2011

A few weeks ago, I posted about how Jon Husted, the Ohio Secretary of State, was holding an online poll to decide which “I voted” sticker will be given out to voters this November.

Two of those stickers featured the state’s motto “With God, All Things Are Possible.”

For a while, those weren’t even close to being in the lead… but now, that bottom one is nearly overtaking the secular “I

You can help keep god out of the election process by voting in the poll.

All you have to do is:

Go to ElectYourSticker. Then enter an Ohio zip code like 44805.

Voting doesn’t end until August 8th so we have our work cut out for us! If you vote, let us know the updated percentages in the comments.

(Thanks to everyone for the link!)

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  • Scout

    Voted three times; god sticker: 31.5%; ohio sticker: 31.3%.

  • Sackbut

    Last I checked, it was god sticker 31.5%, Ohio sticker 31.4%. Still behind, but by a little less.

  • Just voted; god sticker 31.4, Ohio sticker 31.5

  • Jonathan Duran

    Isn’t it a little disingenuous to lie about where you live just to sway a vote for something you’ll never see? Just sayin’…seems dishonest to me.

  • Misty

    I just voted. As of right now the percentages are god sticker, 31.3%, and Ohio sticker, 31.6%.

  • 31.7! Slowly pulling away…

  • GBizzle

    Just voted. They are now dead even at 31.4%

  • Chris

    Just voted:
    Ohio sticker 31.7%, god sticker 31.3%, god w/state flag sticker 17.2%

    Secular sticker is ahead, lets keep this going

  • jarppu

    31.8 vs 31.3. It’s getting better.

  • brandy

    in the lead with 31.8 🙂

  • zachofalltrades

    Good lord…vote as many times as you like!? What the hell is the point of that?

    I have half a mind to script the hell out of this thing and send that sticker through the roof…not just for leaving god off the stupid sticker, but for putting a voting site together like a bunch of inept dicks.

    I wonder if I ran a voting script on infinite loop how high I could get the number before August 8th…? Allowing say 5 seconds to complete a single vote loop, that’s 17280 in a 24 hour period…heeheeee… 😉

  • Siobhan

    I figure I was born in Ohio… sooo…

    Sticker 2 31.2% Sticker 3 31.9%

    When I voted.

  • Mary

    I do live in Ohio, other possible zips are 43015, 43016, 43017, 43235, 43220. If you cycle the zips it’s less obvious what is going on. Send the secular sticker through please, I’d be one unhappy atheist if I had to wear our motto every election. Thanks for posting this, I hadn’t even heard about this until now.

  • I’ve been voting several times a day since you first mentioned it. A little disheartened to see it getting so close.

  • Nivex

    I’m an Ohio ex-pat, and my parents still live there, so I don’t feel too bad about putting in my old home ZIP.

  • KiwiJ

    god: 31.2% Ohio: 31.9%

  • littlejohn

    I feel really stupid, but maybe it’s because I couldn’t sleep last night. Which is the “I is less than three” button? If we’re just spreading our votes among the secular choices, we don’t have a chance (short of setting up vote-bots).
    Since the thing lets you vote multiple times without erasing cookies, this would be easy to crash. Which button are we, um, pushing? I like the “Buckeye” one because it would be so easy for anyone with a marker to change the “B” to an “F.” But that’s just me.

  • KimberEliz

    I am voting back to back to back to back.

    @littlejohn:
    i’m PRETTY SURE we’re voting for the one other sticker that has a chance of winning… “I [Ohio] Voting. (Sticker 3)

    right now, it’s sticker 2 = 31.2% and sticker 3 = 32%.

  • Katy

    Yay! 32%

  • Mr. Bill

    In regard to running a script, I’ve already tried it, and after maybe 200 iterations I saw no change in the number. I suspect that although the site still allows you to go through the voting process, it may store a cookie which prevents rapid fire votes from being counted. The site itself says to “come back every day,” which makes me think it’s a one-day persistent cookie. If anyone wants to make a script that clears cookies and then votes, I’d be interested to hear how it goes. As for myself, paranoia set in after a sufficient number of iterations, so I’m done with scripts for now.

  • Katy

    32.1%

  • Done. 32.1% now, and the nearest competitor’s at 31.2%. The gap’s widening still.

  • Katy

    32.2%

  • Saltyestelle

    I voted for “I (OHIO) Voting” because it’s the hiliariest.

  • A.

    “I voted”: 31.1%
    God: 17%

    The latter is in third place right now.

  • George

    Ohio 32.4 God 31

  • Someone get PZ on this stat! No offense Hemant. 😉 you have a well respected blog and lots of loyal followers (including me.) But bringing in the reinforcements never hurts.

  • Ax

    up to 32.2% now

  • Ben

    I <3 voting: 32.4%
    God stickers: 31% and 16.9%

  • Rich Wilson

    marblecakeandalsothegame

  • Joshua M

    god = 31%
    I <3 = 32.4%

  • Daniel

    The worst part of this is that “With God, all things are possible” is the State Motto of Ohio. It was made the state motto in 1959, around the time that religion started to aggressively insinuate itself into government affairs. Ohio isn’t alone in this though.

    Arizona’s is “Ditat Deus” (God enriches)
    Florida’s is “In God we Trust”

    Weirdest (and most sexist) state motto has to go to Maryland with “Fatti maschii, parole femine” (Manly deeds, womanly words)

  • Rich

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Hemant. I’m a Toledo native currently working out-of-state and had no idea this was going on.

    I [Ohio] Voting 32.5%
    god stickers: 31% and 16.9%

  • just voted — khaki god sticker, 16.9%; red god sticker 31%; i (ohio) voting, 32.5%

    god lost the lead 🙂

  • Craig

    Looks like we need to redouble our efforts. Calling P.Z. Myers!

  • zachofalltrades

    As for the cookie…the only thing I see on my system from that site is a youtube cookie…I might poke around with a script when I get home and experiment…

  • El Bastardo

    31% for the …WITH GOD YAKKA YAKKA sticker

    32.5% for I (Ohio) Voting

    It’s going the right way, but we should keep an eye on this. Has anyone sent this to P.Z.? You know how he loves to pharyngulate polls

  • Sarah

    Colorado’s motto is “Nothing without the Deity.” In 2002 Kentucky changed its motto to “Let us be grateful to God.” Holy crap people are insane.

  • Leslie S

    32.6%- I (Ohio) Voting

    30.9% -God Sticker

    Lets hope we can stay ahead!

  • Blacksheep

    isn’t this supposed to be what Ohio residents want?

  • ACN

    Evidently not, as they seem to have opened it up to anyone on the internet who knows an Ohio zip code.

  • Tim

    @Blacksheep,

    Like ACN said, they’ve opened it up to non-OH residents simply by putting it on the internet.
    Plus, by suppressing the god sticker, we’re just being law-abiding citizens. We’re keeping OH from violating the Constitution, as is our civic duty.

  • 32.9 vs 30.8 (god sticker losing)

  • Bystander

    We are supporting Sticker 3, currently in the lead.

    Sticker 1 16.8% Sticker 2 30.8% Sticker 3 32.9% Sticker 4 5% Sticker 5 9.9% Sticker 6 4.6%

  • Erik

    33% – 30.7%

  • Rich Wilson

    Actually, you don’t even have to enter an OH zipcode. Although I presume they may toss the non-OH zipcodes.

    I dunno. It doesn’t say you have to live in OH, although “your OH zipcode” kind of implies that you do have one.

    I’m not sure I like the “it’s ok to cheat because they made it easy to cheat” angle. Since they explicitly do say you can vote as often as you want, the result is pretty much meaningless anyway, except it’s what will be on the sticker.

    I think even if we stayed out, it would be kind of silly to say it was “what Ohioans wanted”.

    Personally, I can’t be bothered.

  • Jen

    ^^ same as above 33% for the Ohio, 30.7% for the god sticker.

  • Baconsbud

    I am wondering if they will ignore the vote and just go with the god one anyway. We have seen it before where they will change the poll around so they can make it fit what they want just before they close it.

  • Ron

    We need to continue this every day until Aug. 8, and spread the word to other blogs. Anyone got a direct line to PZ?

  • tinker

    33.3% for the Ohio one.

  • Lizzy

    Heh, my family lives in Ashland (44805). They would doubtless prefer the god stickers, but since they are computer inept I’ll just vote for them 😉

  • Julien

    God 30.7%, Ohio 33.4%

  • 33.5% for the Ohio one, 30.7% for the God one.

  • Chakolate

    I’ve been voting every day, too, and just now it was 30.7% for #2, 33.5% for #3. I think we have to do better – can you interest PZ, Hemant?

    Oh, and I’ve been using 43215, it’s easy to remember.

  • Rebecca

    33.5% for the one with the silhouette of the state (the one I voted for) and 30.9% for the god one w/o the flags. Ah! It feels good!

  • Anna

    I voted, I think they are all stupid, including the secular one but I would like to do my part to spare Ohio atheists the hassle of scratching out part of their sticker after voting.

  • Ryan

    Uh oh – looks like the God sticker is on the rise again:

    Ohio – 33.5%
    God – 31.2%

  • Shelly

    Ohio – 33.5%
    God – 31.5%

  • Ohio – 33.5%
    God – 32.3%

  • The religious sticker: 32.6%
    The I love Ohio sticker: 33.4%

  • 32.4% (god) vs. 33.7% (secular)

  • Anon

    32.8%/33.7%

    It’s a bit unfair that the traditional “I voted” sticker is slathered with god.

  • 40.4% (faith)
     
    30.4% (reason)

  • Jennifer Robinson

    Just voted.  Current standings are:  39% (faith), 32.9% for (reason)  – as another commenter worded it.  Ugh.

  • Joebloe

    ohio 38.2%, god 36.8

  • Bill Painter

    37.49%(faith),38.08% for (reason) 
    Reason Won

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