Baseball Fans Head To Polls
Bobblection Returns Following Successful Prediction of 2004 Campaign
ST. PAUL, MN (January 30, 2008) - In 2004, George W. Bush won a narrow victory over John Kerry in the U.S. Presidential Election. National polls varied widely in the weeks leading up to the election as media outlets scrambled to predict which candidate would win.
One poll, taken three months prior to the election, would ultimately prove both prophetic and the most fun to execute.
The Goldklang Group’s Bobblection, held August 2, 2004, allowed minor league baseball fans arriving at the ballpark to cast votes by choosing a bobblehead doll with either Bush or Kerry’s likeness. It was the first organized promotion of its kind and left pollsters asking the question if bobbleheads are the answer to the nation’s election problems.
This summer, fans will cast their votes in six different ballpark polls August 6-11 as part of Bobblection Week 2008. Fans bobblehead choices will help national pollsters gain a feel for each state’s electorate.
“Even though we don’t know who the two candidates will be, we wanted to assure the pollsters that we’ll be back for this year’s general election,” said Goldklang Group President Mike Veeck. “We didn’t want our friends at Gallup getting nervous.”
Bobblection Week 2008 will feature the six teams operated by the Goldklang Group, a sports entertainment consulting and management firm. The schedule is as follows:
August 6: New York (Hudson Valley Renegades)
August 7: Massachusetts (Brockton Rox)
August 8: South Carolina (Charleston RiverDogs)
August 9: Minnesota (St. Paul Saints)
August 10: South Dakota (Sioux Falls Canaries)
August 11: Florida (Ft. Myers Miracle)
As fans pass through stadium turnstiles, they will be directed to election booths where they’ll have the option of casting their vote for either the Democratic or Republican candidate. For participating in the voting, they will receive the bobblehead doll of their candidate. When one candidate runs out of dolls, he or she will be declared the winner of that ballpark’s Bobblection.
Bush won in four of the seven participating ballparks in 2004. The closest race was in St. Paul, MN where Kerry won by 18 bobbleheads.
