Well, as it happened, I had six clipboards staged in "Tinkerbelle" (Christie's van) and set up for each of six of the republican contenders for the senate nomination.  I spoke with Roger briefly about working this venue together, and figured we might collect more signatures for Glenn if we offered voters a variety of options instead of a Hobson's Choice.  Him agreeing, I pulled my clipboards and coffee mug out of the van and we promptly set up shop on the hood of his car (which was just outside the 100 foot demarc).

Our approach was very simple:  As voters pulled up, we got their attention and let them know that we had nominating petitions for the Michigan Republican senate primary, and would they be interested in signing one of them.  Of the 342 voters who voted before we called it a day at 5:00 p.m., 69 of them came over to the car to look the petitions over, most of those coming over to the car after they'd voted.

Of those who came over, 60 signed one of the petitions.  Of remaining 9, five admitted that they were as yet undecided on the matter, and four had already signed a petition previously.  And while we had the voters at the car, Roger and I decided to conduct an exit poll while we were at it.  The question was very straightforward:  If you don't mind us asking, who did you vote for today?  Only three voters declined to answer.

This approach, combining an exit poll with a signature collection (which the City Clerk assured us was perfectly legal, as long as we stayed outside the 100 foot demarc and didn't harass the voters), provided an interesting comparison.

As I said, 60 signatures were collected, and those broke down as follows (with the presidential primary vote tabulations added parenthetically):

• Scott Boman:  3 signatures (voters = 2 REP + 1 WMR)
  
• Clark Durant:  5 signatures (voters = 3 WMR + 2 RJS)
  
• Gary Glenn:  20 signatures (voters = 1 NLG + 4 REP + 5 WMR + 9 RJS + 1 BHO) . . . yes, a voter who admitted to casting an Obama primary ballot signed Glenn's nominating petition
  
• Randy Hekman:  9 signatures (voters = 4 NLG + 3 REP + 1 WMR + 1 RJS)
  
• Pete Hoekstra:  22 signatures (voters = 2 NLG + 1 REP + 6 WMR + 10 RJS + 3 who declined to disclose)
  
• Peter Konetchy:  1 signature . . . this was a Ron Paul supporter who specifically asked if we had a Konetchy petition
  
• The five voters who didn't sign a petition broke down as 4 NLG + 5 RJS

• Rick Santorum:  27 voters (≈ 39.13%)
  
• Mitt Romney:  16 voters (≈ 23.19%)
  
• Newt Gingrich:  11 voters (≈ 15.94%)
  
• Ron Paul:  11 voters (≈ 15.94%)

• Mitt Romney:  163 votes (≈ 38.81%)
  
• Rick Santorum:  153 votes (≈ 36.43%)
  
• Ron Paul:  56 votes (≈ 13.33%)
  
• Newt Gingrich:  38 votes (≈ 9.05%)
  
• Other Candidates:  5 votes (≈ 1.19%) . . . two votes each for Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, one vote for Rick Perry
  
• Uncommitted:  5 votes (≈ 1.19%)