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"  Though the polls have yet to open, you can cast your vote for president now at 7-Eleven. The 24-hour convenience store is asking coffee customers to select their candidate by choosing their coffee cups: red for former Governor Mitt Romney and blue for President Barack Obama. The promotion, dubbed &amp;quot;7-Election 2012,&amp;quot; isn&amp;#039;t exactly scientific. Yet in past presidential election years, the coffee cup poll has proven accurate. A breakdown of previous percolated predictions: In 2000, George W. Bush received 21 percent of the 7-Election votes; Al Gore received 20 percent (the non-partisan cups were also part of the counting). The one percent difference reflected the country&amp;#039;s final official tabulation, with Bush beating Gore by less than one percent. In 2004, George W. took on John Kerry. In the 7-Election Bush came out on top with 51 percent, and in the U.S. election, Bush received 50.7 percent of Americans&amp;#039; votes. In 2008, Barack Obama received 52 percent of the 7-Election votes (52.9 percent of the U.S. votes) while John McCain received 46 percent (45.7 percent of the U.S. votes). More From Delish: Plate of the Union: The Picky Presidential Palate There aren&amp;#039;t any hanging chads at 7-Eleven locations, and unlike the U.S. polls, 7-Eleven counts theirs electronically. The specially marked cups are tabulated instantly when the purchase is made and the results are tracked on the 7-Election website. (You can even check your state to see who is ahead.) In a company press release, 7-Eleven, Inc. President and CEO Joe DePinto said, &amp;quot;While we have never billed 7-Election as scientific or statistically valid, it is astounding just how accurate this simple count-the-cups poll has been \u2014 election after election.&amp;quot; According to DePinto, &amp;quot;Each day, almost 7 million Americans visit our neighborhood stores on their way to work, after school, or while they&amp;#039;re out and about. Around 1 million of those purchase a cup of 7-Eleven coffee.&amp;quot; You could say voting at 7-Eleven might even be easier than going to the official polling sites, as approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population lives within one mile of a 7-Eleven store and there are nearly 9,000 locations throughout the U.S. More From Delish: The Tasty Trail to the White House If curiosity isn&amp;#039;t enough incentive to see if the coffee-cup-count works for the 2012 race, on Saturday, September 29 (also National Coffee Day), 7-Eleven will pour free java between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. For those who don&amp;#039;t identify with either party, you can still vote as an independent by choosing the non-partisan cups. In addition, if you consider yourself a &amp;quot;purple person,&amp;quot; 7-Elevens across the country will serve a vanilla-flavored &amp;quot;Purple for the People Slurpee&amp;quot; to you. The beverage was created during the 2010 mid-term elections to unify the dueling Republicans and Democrats. Will you cast your vote for president at 7-Eleven?  Find more great food content on Delish: Search for the perfect recipe from our homepage Find out the latest food news Get a recipe book to save your favorite dishes Sign up for our free newsletters Check us out on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a39201/7-eleven-presidential-polling-coffee-cups/>