Return of the ‘Lizard People’

The Lizard People might be getting support again on Tuesday. Lucas Davenport of Bemidji made “The Lizard People” a household word in Minnesota two years ago when he appeared to write in Lizard People on a ballot in the disputed Al Franken – Norm Coleman Senate race.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard the conspiracy theory about the Lizard Men,” Davenport told MPR at the time. “A friend of mine, we didn’t like the candidates, so we were at first going to write in revolution, because we thought that was good and to the point. And then, we thought the Lizard People would be even funnier, and there was kind of a running inside gag between some friends and I.”

What about Tuesday’s election? I asked Davenport if The Lizard People will be getting a vote.

“That’s hilarious,” he said. “I was just pondering the same question. I see no reason that they don’t deserve my vote. After all, I wouldn’t want the wrong lizard to get elected.”

Davenport’s creation — inexplicably — even made a column in USA Today today about the science of math in numbers in which a mathematician argues that a coin flip is as fair a way to settle a close race as a recount of votes.