Top-selling political mask could determine outcome of election

WELLINGTON, Fla. - Could sales of a Halloween mask indicate the winner of a presidential election?

Some local retailers say "yes."

Fiona Rhodes, the manager of Spirit Halloween Headquarters in Wellington, says Obama masks outsold John McCain masks in 2008. Obama went on to win the election that year.

And since the election, she says sales of the Obama mask have continued to climb.

"Around 2010 is when we last had the masks and even then, without the election time being around, we sold a lot of Obama masks," Rhodes said.I

It isn't clear, however, if customers buy the masks to show support for their chosen candidate, or to make a mockery of the one they don't support.

According to Rhodes, "I think some of them just do it to make a gag out of it."

Some customers don't see the correlation between election results and mask sales. Brandi Oliver, a customer at Spirit, says " I think whichever one sells the most is an indicator of who looks the funniest."