7-Eleven brings back coffee cup presidential vote7-Eleven Inc. is giving Americans the chance to vote early and often.
The Dallas-based chain is bringing back its to-go coffee cup promotion that proved prescient in the 2000 and '04 presidential elections.
Voting begins Wednesday and ends on Election Day, Nov. 4. Customers vote by filling red to-go hot beverage cups for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain or blue cups for Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
Anyone abstaining or undecided but still in need of caffeine can fill a regular 7-Eleven cup.
7-Election has attracted 6 million voters each election, and the company expects at least that many this year.
The retailer says that past interim results closely mirrored the official surveys by the country's top political pollsters. Final results were right on.
Cup counts predicted President Bush's close against Democratic nominee Al Gore in 2000. Likewise in 2004, President Bush out-cupped Sen. John Kerry, 51 percent to 49 percent.
Joe DePinto, 7-Eleven president and chief executive, said the company doesn't bill the poll as scientific, but its stores do reach regular Americans "just going about their everyday lives."
Cups are instantly tabulated at the register when the sale is made. National and state results will be posted daily on
www.7-election.com, a Web site created for the hot beverage poll.
7-Eleven says coffee is a nonpartisan beverage choice and notes it was named the national beverage by the First Continental Congress after the Boston Tea Party.
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