Microsoft issued a press release with the details on the poll that it ran as part of its partnership with Rock the Vote. Thankfully, they aren't pretending that it's actual science, because there are so many holes in this poll that it's impossible to take it as anything other than sort-of interesting. For example, as someone who has more than one Xbox Live gold account, I probably could have voted twice... but I actually didn't see anything on Xbox Live promoting the poll when it was running. Plus, the release is careful to avoid any mention of age, instead just sort of calling you things like "young" and "engaged." I believe that's "engaged" as in "we are able to get them to opt-in on stuff because they are way into Xbox Live," not "going to get married soon."
Anyway, here are the results:
| Ticket | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Obama/Biden | 43% |
| McCain/Palin | 31% |
| Undecided | 13% |
| Other | 13% |
That's from nearly 100,000 US-based Xbox Live users, nearly half of which probably would have voted for a Fenix/Santiago ticket if it was an option. Additionally, the plan to register votes through Xbox Live resulted in the download of over 55,000 voter registration forms. I actually signed up to receive such a form, but never got mine. This part of the process was supposed to be handled via e-mail, with users opting-in to receive an e-mail with a link to a printable form.
Those of you who already know about my dream of a paperless, phone call-free world probably won't be too shocked when I tell you that I think it's about time we got technology more integrated with the voting process. This whole "go to your local polling place and tick boxes on a form or use a crazy voting machine" thing seems like an outdated solution with plenty of room for error. I have hope that we'll see some change along these lines in my lifetime, but then the government isn't exactly known for being speedy or technologically savvy. OK, OK, if I go on I run the risk of turning this into Political Base. But I will say that anything that gets people to take a more active interest in politics is probably a good thing.
But this brings us to our question of the moment! Which video game duo would you like to see in the White House as the President and Vice President of the US?