Obama Tops McCain in Pumpkin Poll
New Haven Register - New Haven, CT
By Abbe Smith
October 27, 2008

Ryan Wickstrand, owner of Zombie Pumpkins, designs patterns for carving pumpkins and sells the designs on his Web site.
photo by Peter Hvizdak

It may not be scientific, but Ryan Wickstrand's presidential pumpkin poll predicts Barack Obama will triumph over John McCain... at least on Halloween.

The 30-year-old mastermind behind West Haven-based Zombie Pumpkins, an online business that sells stencils for pumpkin carving, keeps a running tally on his Web site of who is the more sought-after candidate.

So far it's Obama over McCain, 63 percent to 37 percent.

"I'm no political expert," Wickstrand cautions. "I don't know, but for some reason I think that the people who carve pumpkins are a cross-section of America, so I would not be surprised if the percentages are similar."

With Election Day only four days after Halloween, Wickstrand will find out soon enough.

"It's a big election. We are going to have someone new next year," he says. "Seems only right to get in on the media buzz."

Wickstrand's business works like this: About 180 of his hand-drawn designs are available at www.zombiepumpkins.com. Users can order, pay for and download stencils of their favorite designs - anything from Frankenstein to Ozzy Osbourne to Harry Potter - and use them to carve pumpkins. The business is in its sixth year, and Wickstrand counts 450,000 downloads so far this year alone. His is not the only pumpkin stencil Web site, but he likes to think his is unique in that he designs all the stencils himself.

Needless to say, Wickstrand's favorite holiday is Halloween, a good thing since Zombie Pumpkins has become a full-time job for him.

Wickstrand graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in computer design.

"I never would have guessed it would have gone in the direction of pumpkins," he says.

Many of Wickstrand's customers are not shy about giving him feedback and voicing their opinions about his designs, especially the presidential faces.

Scott Wagner of Minneapolis is one of the coveted undecided voters, so he ordered a McCain and an Obama stencil and plans to carve both.

"I don't follow politics too closely," he says. "But I was going to do an experiment."

In order to gauge the political climate of the neighborhood, he figured he'd carve an Obama and a McCain, put them outside, and see which one gets smashed first by vandals or campaign operatives.

For his 3-year-old son, Wagner has something less sinister planned. "We are going to do SpongeBob," he says.

Ronnie Boling of Jonesboro, Ark., is supporting McCain in the election, but on his front porch this Halloween, pumpkins bearing Obama's and McCain's faces will be glowing side by side.

"We went ahead and did both just for fun," he said.

In fact, alongside McCain and Obama will be Super Mario and Princess Peach (of the video game), Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and Shaun of zombie movie spoof "Shaun of the Dead." Boling and his wife, Amanda, will be carving pumpkins all weekend in preparation for the big night.

Wickstrand says most of the Obama supporters say he did a great job capturing the candidate's likeness. But at least one customer commented that it appears Wickstrand made McCain look creepy.

Wickstrand disagrees.

"I tried to uncreepify him," he insists and then explains that McCain has more wrinkles.

In fact, Wickstrand says facial features like wrinkles and dark circles under people's eyes make for better pumpkin carving. It is important to have strong lines in the designs to ensure the pumpkin does not collapse and the design can hold together.

"It's as much of a science as it is an art," he says.

Wickstrand doesn't make a habit of it, but he has taken requests in the past. One person e-mailed him and said his grandfather, a huge Halloween fan, died and the person wanted to carve his face into a pumpkin as a tribute. He also drew a stencil of a soldier's face so his family back home could have him with them on Halloween.

Zombie Pumpkins has taken Wickstrand's life in a new direction. He keeps certain Halloween decorations up all year long in his apartment; his license plate reads ZOMBIE; and he's even thinking about buying an orange car.

"I used to hate the color orange," he says.

And if his presidential pumpkin poll turns out to be right on the money, who knows, maybe he'll have another role as an unofficial pollster down the road.

"Four years from now, all the media outlets will be knocking on my door," he says.