On Election Day, two candidates will battle in the streets of Evanston for voters’ hearts and wallets.
One is a down-home kind of guy, the other is a bastion of liberal tolerance. Both pack a punch, are tart and will set you back about $5.
Bar Louie, 1520 Sherman Ave., is hosting a Martini Election Poll Party tonight, serving up special “Kerry-Oke” and “Bush-Wacker” cocktails and keeping a tally of the “votes.”
Manager Chris Weil said although the drinks have different names and descriptions, they are both identical apple pie martinis.
The “Kerry-Oke” is billed as “a liberal amount of VOX vodka, a tolerant splash of Apple Pucker, garnished with an allowance of graham cracker crust rimming the glass.”
The “Bush-Wacker” is “a pork-barrel-sized amount of VOX vodka, with an agreeable amount of Apple
Pucker, served with a graham cracker crust just like mom used to make.”
Poll results will be released at closing time, 1 a.m. Weil said the fruity drinks “represent America, which hopefully is what the candidates will do.”
Evanston resident Sara Crawford said she loves the idea of voting through alcohol, but said the Martini Poll seemed slanted to one candidate.
“‘Bush-Wacker’ doesn’t sound pro-Bush,” said Crawford, 26. “I think it’s very Communist. Either way you vote for the same person, just call it Saddam Hussein A or B.”
“What about a third-party drink?” chimed in Sile Malone, 21, of Evanston. “We want the Termin-Nader. He’s green.”
People have also let their mouths do the voting at 7-Elevens across the country in their second quadrennial “7-Election.” During October, customers chose between 20 oz. Bush, Kerry or Third Party/No Opinion/”None of Your Business” coffee cups. Results were posted online daily. Yesterday — the last day of “voting” — Bush led the poll by a scant 2 percentage points.
Although the company calls the poll unabashedly unscientific, the numbers seem to mirror national polls, just as it did in 2000.
“It’s a very important issue teamed with a very important product for our customers,” said 7-Eleven spokesperson Margaret Chabris. “We call our coffee liquid gold.”
But at Bar Louie Sunday night, Noah Gribben, Communication ’04, said he would never order a drink called “Kerry-Oke.”
He would rather have a beer at an election party instead.
“I care,” he said. “but I don’t care enough to buy a drink.”
Reach Maridel Reyes at [email protected].
