GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Forget about Peoria. If it plays in Grand Rapids – for Griffins fans at Van Andel Arena, specifically – it apparently plays throughout the entire United States.

In an obvious bellwether for future presidential elections, the results of the Grand Rapids Griffins’ popular “Bobble the Vote” giveaway last Saturday mirrored the popular vote on Tuesday, predicting each candidate’s ultimate share within one percentage point.

In an outcome that received national attention, Barack Obama was first chosen as the 44th president on Saturday, prior to the Griffins’ game against the Milwaukee Admirals. The last of Obama’s 1,000 bobbleheads was claimed when 102 of John McCain’s still remained, giving the Democrat 52.7 percent of the vote (1,000) to McCain’s 47.3 percent (898).

Nationwide on Tuesday, Obama finished with 52.4% of the popular vote, a miniscule 0.3 percentage points off his Griffins victory. McCain, meanwhile, garnered the votes of 46.3% of Americans, a one-percent difference thought to be attributable to there having been no bobbleheads of Ralph Nader available (insert your own joke here).

“The cost for this year’s presidential campaign is estimated to exceed $1.6 billion, with millions more spent on poll after endless poll, not to mention the costs involved in actually gathering and tallying the votes of 119 million citizens,” said Tim Gortsema, the Griffins’ senior vice president of business operations. “Given the pinpoint accuracy of our polling on Saturday and the current state of our economy, this is grossly wasteful spending.

“Democracy isn’t cheap, but thankfully, Griffins tickets are. Thus, we propose and call on all political parties to agree to conduct future presidential campaigns and elections solely within the friendly confines of Van Andel Arena. That’s truly a change we can believe in,” said Gortsema.