Decatur boy will trick-or-treat as ballot box

Undecided voters in Decatur beware: You might be forced to pick John McCain or Barack Obama on Halloween night. That’s when 9-year-old Moey Rojas plans to go door-to-door, knowing that no matter which candidate his neighbors pick, he’ll be the one tasting sweet victory.

His costume: a voting machine.

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Family photo/Handout

Moey’s costume this year is a Candy Voting Machine.

Photos: See the many Halloween costumes of Moey

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His goal: a stuffed ballot box.

Those who open their doors to the fourth-grader will be able to vote with candy.

There’s one opening, to the left (of course), for Obama.

And a second one, to the right (you betcha), for McCain.

The elaborate costume features a neck strap, tray and red, white and blue fabric.

The donkey and elephant figurines were plucked from Moey’s toy collection.

The Candy Voting Machine is topped by a sign hand-lettered in red and blue on white asking, “Who gets your sugar?”

“My favorite part of the costume is that people can vote with candy. I think that’s pretty cool,” said Moey, who attends the private Paideia School in Atlanta.

For years, Moey has drawn Halloween inspiration from current events. He dressed up as a Weather Channel hurricane chaser after a spate of storms grabbed headlines, and went as the berobed Dalai Lama after studying Tibet in school.

Expectations have grown since Moey nailed a Gene Simmons costume complete with silver boots and waving tongue four years ago.

Last year, however, Moey and his mom were at a loss for ideas.

Mindy Stombler ended up trolling Buford Highway markets for ideas. She returned home with an idea to turn Moey into a piñata. And while it wasn’t their favorite ensemble, it planted the seed for this year’s costume: If you can stuff a piñata with candy, why not stuff a ballot with candy?

With his mom “obsessed” with the election, there was never any doubt Moey’s costume would be steeped in a political theme.

“After every debate, the first thing Moey asks when he wakes up is ‘Who won?’” recounts Stombler, a senior lecturer in sociology at Georgia State University.

Moey said he favors Obama. For him, the Iraq war is the big issue.

“I don’t think the war in Iraq is a very good idea, and I think Obama wants to end it but I am not sure McCain wants to end it,” he said.

Still, Moey said he will purposely target Decatur homes with McCain signs to help boost the Republican hopeful’s numbers.

He will try to limit one piece of candy at each stop to help keep the counting accurate.

“We need to limit the candy because if people are overexcited about their candidates it might be unfair because a McCain house or Obama could overwhelm us with candy,” he said.

Still, cognizant of the sea of Obama signs in their neighborhood, Moey and Stombler suspect the voting might be lopsided. By night’s end, Moey might be like his neighbors: leaning to the left.

They plan to post the results Halloween night by 11 p.m. on their Web site: www.candyvote.com.