Obama’s cup overflowing

Coffee? Check.

Gas? Check.

Vote for president? Check.

For the third straight presidential election, 7-Eleven stores across the country are letting customers cast their vote when buying their morning brew with red McCain or blue Obama 20-ounce coffee cups. Customers can “vote” as often as they please, and the convenience stores track the results by state online.

In Culpeper, Sen. Barack Obama leads in all five stores, averaging 56 percent as of Sunday, according to Mike Kirby, who owns two of Culpeper’s five 7-Elevens.

Inside each store are stacks of blue and red paper cups towering over the coffee pots, with banners reading “You Decide.” Kirby said Sen. John McCain led “two or three” of the stores last week, but has dropped since.

“McCain’s ahead, right?” Commonwealth’s Attorney Gary Close asked last week in the store by Wendy’s.

“Not here he’s not,” manager Cindy Dodson said.

Close and friend Tom Henneman were stopping by to pick up a few snacks but not any coffee; they were heading downtown to Raven’s Nest for their caffeine.

“Go throw some of the Obama cups away,” Henneman joked.

“We don’t cheat,” Dodson said through a smile.

In the first week of October, Dodson’s store tallied 125 cups for Obama to 92 for McCain.

“I think it’s the different clientele at each store,” she said, adding that most of her customers buying coffee appeared to be middle class.

Admittedly unscientific, 7-Eleven’s “7-Election” has predicted the past two Bush wins by mere percentage points.

In the 2008 poll, which began Oct. 1 and runs through Election Day, Obama leads the nation with 59.68 percent, as well as Virginia with 61 percent. Of the 30 states with 7-Eleven stores, McCain leads three: North Carolina, West Virginia and New Hampshire.

“When 7-Eleven held its first 7-Election eight years ago, we had no idea what the final results would be or how popular the cup poll would become,” 7-Eleven President and CEO Joe DePinto said in a press release.

“While we don’t bill this as a statistically valid study by any means, it does reach Americans in their hometowns.”

Next to the register in Dodson’s store, where each cup purchased is counted, sat a display of bumper stickers and key chains supporting both candidates. “Latinos for Obama,” read one. “John McCain, Ready from Day One,” read another. Most of the Obama side was empty.

“I just like what he stands for,” Jason Richards said of Obama as he waited in line to pay at another store in town. Richards wasn’t buying any coffee, though. “I don’t drink coffee. I’m hyper enough as it is.”

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

The 7-Eleven coffee cup ‘poll’ results

An election is not won at 7-Eleven, that’s for sure. But when it comes to coffee drinkers choosing which candidate’s cup to buy, Democrat Barack Obama has a sizeable lead.

Could this be an accurate predictor of the presidential race? The past two elections it has.

Nation
Obama 60% | McCain 40%

Virginia
Obama 61% | McCain 39%

Culpeper
Obama 56% | McCain 44%

* Results as of Sunday

The tally at Culpeper’s five 7-Elevens | South Main Street store leans the most blue; Best Western-area store nearly split

779 Madison Road
(near the Best Western)
Obama 51% | McCain 49%

416 S. Main St.
(the store without pumps)
Obama 52% | McCain 48%

814 N. Main St.
(near Wendy’s)
Obama 57% | McCain 43%

883 N. Main St.
(near McDonald’s)
Obama 68% | McCain 32%

520 James Madison Hwy.
(near Texaco)
Obama 55% | McCain 45%