Can cookies predict the next president? Bakeries use tasty treats to poll customers

Bakeries across the U.S. have been sweetening up election season with “cookie polls.”

Meant to add a little fun to what can be an otherwise tense time, cookie polls use sales of the sweet treat to try to determine the outcome of the presidential election.

Here’s how it works: Cookies are decorated with each presidential candidate’s name or likeness, then voters purchase the cookie for the candidate they support.

Bakeries will often post their findings in-store or online — and most show President Donald Trump in the lead.

For instance, the most recent update from Busken Bakery in Ohio — a battleground state — has Trump leading Joe Biden 19,753 cookies to 13,954, according to a Monday Facebook post.

Busken’s cookies are sold in-store and at several grocery stores throughout Ohio, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. They’re decorated with caricatures of each candidate.

Lochel’s Bakery in Pennsylvania — another battleground state — also shows Trump leading Biden, a whopping 27,903 cookies to 5,114, according to a Sunday Facebook post.

“We had one guy drive twice from Staten Island for them,” bakery owner Kathleen Lochel told Fox News. She added that the poll has accurately predicted the winner of the last three elections.

Lochel’s cookie poll ends at 7 p.m. on Election Day, then they’ll determine the final tally. But for now, she says Trump seems to be the clear winner.

In Wisconsin — yet another battleground state — the cookie poll at Uncle Mike’s Bake Shoppe also shows Trump poised for a landslide victory, leading Biden with 70.2% of cookie sales to 29.8% in the most recent update.

Mike Vande Walle, owner of the bakery, has been running cookie polls every election since 2008 and said this year’s results are unprecedented.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” he told The New Yorker. “I don’t know if they’re buying the Trump ones as jokes. That’s the only thing I can think of, because that’s a big spread.”

However, the poll isn’t always accurate. In 2012, Unlce Mike’s sold more Mitt Romney cookies than Barack Obama cookies, yet Obama won the election. But in 2016, the poll accurately predicted Trump would take Wisconsin — the first time the state went red in a presidential election since 1984 — and the presidency, according to The New Yorker.

Bobby Jucker, owner of Texas’ Three Brothers Bakery, said the results aren’t always what they seem.

His bakery’s cookie poll shows Trump leading Biden, but by a much narrower margin — 2,183 to 1,586 as of Friday, according to a Facebook post.

“This poll may be skewed because I’ve had customers come in to get Trump cookies so they can bite his head off,” Jucker told KHOU.

He said the bakery’s been running its cookie poll for the last four elections and has accurately predicted the winner every time.

But Jucker said the poll is all in good fun.

“At the end of the day, it’s a cookie, we’re just trying to have fun with this really tough election,” he told KHOU.

The most recent numbers from polling site FiveThirtyEight show Biden with an 8-point lead over Trump nationally.

This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Can cookies predict the next president? Bakeries use tasty treats to poll customers."