Well, as far as I'm concerned, THIS atheist votes. But I think your question should be 'Do openly proclaimed atheists run for office?'. I agree that there seems to be a strong "God-Factor' quality attached to all major candidates regardless of Party affiliation. (Although, didn't Paul Hogan claim that religion was the product of a weak mind? He also later had to retract that comment.) This sort of political pandering (from both sides) makes me leave religion out of the picture when deciding whom to vote for. I then have to look at who will do the most overall good for the office. Let's face it, usually no one is going to be the 'Ideal Candidate', as there are always issues one will disagree with when looking at one person. Funny thing, there seems to be however a large population of voters that do just the opposite. They agree (or disagree) with one pet issue with a candidate and then go with (or against) that person; all other issues being moot. I recently debated someone on chosing a candidate and found that the other person I was debating was arguing issues that in fact weren't even true at all. They were gross errors needed by him in order to maintain their political point of view, which supported his candidate. It finally turned out that this person actually agreed with their candidate on only one issue and agreed with the opposition on many others. But facts be damned -- no amount of reason and logic was going to make this person listen. This is why I beleve no political candidate will go out and proclaim themselves an atheist, or even a non-believer. Too many voters will focus on that one issue and ignore all the others.
