Andrée Seu Peterson on the "Time" cover 
Click to Print
Include Comments
Cast a vote, fill your belly
After voting, make sure you get an “I voted today” sticker. It’s your ticket to free food all day long!
Krispy Kreme: Free star-shaped doughnut with red, white, and blue sprinkles.
Starbucks: Free tall coffee just for saying “I voted.”
Ben & Jerry’s: Free scoop of ice cream from 5-8 p.m.
Other retailers are also holding special promotions on the regional level. Any more to share?
UPDATE: Because election laws prohibit organizations from giving perks to people who voted, retailers are getting creative with their promotions.
Topic: Campaign 2008, News Desk
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
back to top26 Comments to “Cast a vote, fill your belly”
No fair! I voted early!!
Report comment to moderator
Me too Deb. I wore my sticker and didn’t get a thing.
Report comment to moderator
Starbucks was told it was illegal and will now give a tall cup to anyone who asks. (Source: several news sites)
Report comment to moderator
Dang, I’m fasting today.
Report comment to moderator
We don’t have any of those places in town, and I don’t care for their food even if we did (well, maaaaybe a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s). Now if there were free food at Wendy’s or Taco Bell or Long John Silvers, I’d be interested.
But they didn’t give out any stickers where I voted this morning.
Report comment to moderator
4 Kbells, your reward is in heaven!
Report comment to moderator
I was told by the gentleman who handed my my “I voted!” sticker that wearing it to Starbucks would get me a free coffee. Maybe not all Starbucks or polling places got the illegal memo.
Report comment to moderator
How is it illegal for rewarding someone who is doing their civic duty. Anyone who is a citizen and isn’t a criminal has the right to vote.
Report comment to moderator
Starbucks definitely got the memo, and the others didn’t put voting as a condition of the free food.
No stickers here, either, but I plan on getting a doughnut!!
Report comment to moderator
Kim,
It’s seen as a bribe–paying you (the value of the cup of coffee) for your vote. Though it’s not as though they could verify it–I could wear someone else’s sticker, for example. I think their motivation was decent; they just overstepped a law that’s intended for rewards with greater value. Free for all will still get people in the store, which was the goal.
Report comment to moderator
I just don’t get this whole importance of voting–we bribe you to vote, we beat the woods looking for unregistered voters, we scream with glee at record turn outs. It seems to me if a person can’t be bothered to vote just because it’s their civic responsiblity, how can they be expected to vote thoughtfully?
Feeling cumudgeonly today.
Report comment to moderator
I think an informed and educated electorate is the cornerstone of any democracy.
The problem I have with pre-election voting is we are appealing to convenience and making everything easy. It ought to take some effort and work to learn, study and be prepared to the assume responsibility to cast a vote.
We are appealing to the self-center and self-serving.
A candidate can promise this type of group any self beneficial prize from the government in order to be elected. We need voters who know the principles of a free nation and free market and understand the awesome duty of individual liberty and responsibility and its cost.
We need an electorate who will take the time to be knowledgeable and then take the time to vote what is best for the whole country over the long haul.
Report comment to moderator
Michelle – “Feeling cumudgeonly today.”
Must be the skunky dog…
Report comment to moderator
Michelle, I agree wholeheartedly and I am not even feeling curmudgeonly.
Report comment to moderator
I nominate Michelle for the head of Voter Registration. If you can’t be bothered to vote, why should the rest of us care? I agree with you.
Report comment to moderator
Yes, I agree that making voting easy is not a good idea. Frankly, I wouldn’t be opposed to voters needing to pass a basic test, though I know that has been declared illegal.
When I got my sticker, I wondered how much the government paid for these stickers, just to give adults the kind of “reward” that used to be given to children. Save the money, please. (I grabbed mine just because I knew the lady nearest the door was making sure people had gotten one, and it was easier just to take one before I got to her!)
Report comment to moderator
Cheryl, I think it’s an attempt to identify those who have voted to put some pressure on others to go vote and get their proof.
Grown-up peer pressure.
Report comment to moderator
I walked by Starbucks on my way home from voting (love my small town!) and would have loved a free coffee. But the stroller is too heavy to manage easily one-handed, too big to fit through the door, and my youngest had fallen asleep. Maybe hubbie and I can both go later when he votes.
Report comment to moderator
Pauline – Wendy’s is offering a free small frosty today. You’re in luck!
Report comment to moderator
Offering free coffee for a vote is a felony in Georgia:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/11/04/vote-and-get-free-coffee-donuts-and-a-felony/
Report comment to moderator
Just came back from Krispy Kreme—yummy! Remember, they’re giving stuff away to everybody–no voting/proof required.
Report comment to moderator
I like the Black Panthers in Philadelphia standing guard at the pooling stations with their new uniforms, with nightsticks, and intimidating election poll workers on the right. They told the Fox news cameras to get used to it now that Obama was president and to leave the polling station too since they as whites and conservatives were not welcome there. Yep, this is the change we asked for all right. No cops showed up for some reason.
Report comment to moderator
LLama, it’s change we can believe.
Report comment to moderator
Llama – go to the Black Panther thread and watch all 3 videos. The cops did show up and by the time Fox got there they had come and gone.
Report comment to moderator
#22 LLAMA
Cops DID show up and took them away. Look on uTube for the video.
Report comment to moderator
Well, I never did get back to Starbucks for my free coffee. But my hubbie stopped at Ben & Jerry’s (1 block closer to home than Starbucks) on his way home from voting and brought me a scoop of chocolate peanut swirl ice cream.
Report comment to moderator
back to topJoin The Conversation
You need to be a registered user of WORLDmag.com's Community section to "join the conversation."
If you are not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Register / Login Now!