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“My wife and I were talking about the election with our kids and polling came up, how it can be skewed based on the way they phrase the question to get the results they want,” said Dan Foor. “I said, ‘I bet our numbers are truer than polling.’”
So at his Magic Wash car wash locations in Madison and Middleton, Foor labeled one of his touchless wash bays for Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and another for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat.
As of Tuesday, a sign at Foor’s Magic Wash on Parmenter Street in Middleton showed Obama leading McCain, 324 washes to 281, or 53.6 percent to 46.4 percent. The Pflaum Road wash in Madison produced an Obama lead of 486 to 421, resulting in the same percentage as in Middleton.
Those figures compare with the 52.4 percent to 42.0 percent average advantage for Obama in more scientific polls conducted in Wisconsin, according to RealClearPolitics.com, a Web site that tracks polling data in states and nationally.
Mike Wenkman, of Madison, who owns a used import car business near the Middleton Magic Wash, picked the McCain bay and said he would vote for the Arizona senator.
“I have a small business and I was in the military,” Wenkman said. “I have a lot of respect for Sen. McCain.”
Emily Thiess, of Waunakee, went through the Obama bay. “That’s who I’m voting for,” she said of the Illinois senator.
Foor, of Oregon, launched the promotion in late September. Machines that take in money adjacent to each bay count the number of cars that move through them, and he updates each sign daily, he said.
Foor described himself as a “Republican who votes independently,” but said he’s not sure who he will vote for.
