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Techies back Obama for President

by on22 October 2008

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Sales of coffee mugs predict election outcome?

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has come out in support of Barack Obama. And the techie workers in California who buy coffee at 7-Eleven have also shown their preference for Obama: of the 7-Eleven retail stores in California that sell both Obama and McCain coffee mugs, the Obama mugs are selling over the McCain mugs 64% of the time.

States with technology as their base seem to be leaning strongly toward Obama.  In every state that has a large technology employment base, Obama is winning in 7-Eleven coffee cup selections by large margins, with the exception of New Jersey, where Obama has only a slim cup sales edge over McCain. Using figures from the AeA’s (formerly American Electronics Association) annual Cyberstate report and 7-Eleven’s coffee mug sales, here are the results.

In all the states that 7-Eleven has stores in, Obama coffee mugs were picked 60% of the time. 7-Eleven said that the collected data, which involved about 6 million total cup sales from previous elections, has actually tracked closely to actual election outcomes. In the 2004 election, the ratio of coffee cups sold were 51% for George Bush and 49% for John Kerry.

These statistics make sense, not only because states with more technology jobs are seeking the candidate they think has the best chance to bring prosperity and jobs to their states, but because they want a candidate who will push for more technology-type jobs because of his personal interest in their industry.

John McCain has publicly admitted that he is techno neophyte and doesn’t understand the Internet or know how to use it. When it comes to supporting technology and its growth as an industry it stands to reason that technology companies are likely going to choose the candidate that they think will best represent them. And technology workers will vote for the candidate they think will best represent their interests if the candidate uses and embraces technology.

If 7-Eleven’s coffee mug sales are an accurate indicator, the next U.S. President will be Barak Obama.

Last modified on 22 October 2008
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