I’ve watched this story develop since yesterday, but haven’t had a chance to post it.

Yesterday, I heard that Starbucks would be giving out free tall coffees to voters.  That was on top of an announcement a few weeks back by Shane’s Rib Shack that they would give out free food to voters on Election Day.

However, as Megan points out in a link to an AJC article this morning, its actually illegal to give perks to voters.  For example, yuppies might be more apt to vote if a free tall coffee was waiting for them upon exit. So now those companies are being forced to open the free-bees to anyone.

Here’s an up-to-date list that Carl put together for us yesterday…

Free 12 oz brewed coffee at Starbucks

Free star-shaped doughnut with red, white and blue sprinkles at Krispy Kreme: http://www.krispykreme.com/images/hot_vote_now08_pop.jpg

Free scoop at Ben & Jerry’s (5 PM – 8 PM): http://www.benjerry.com/features/i_voted/

Free MP3 downloads: http://www.rockthevote.com/pledge/

Free lunch at Shane’s Rib Shack (first 300 people at each location): http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Shanes-Celebrates-American-Democracy-With/story.aspx?guid={6D856C34-2FAF-434A-B35D-731969D25323}

And kinda free: at all Homegrown Restaurants (Doc Chey’s, Osteria 832, and Stella), registered Karma Card users buy one lunch or dinner and get one free (Karma Card is their free loyalty program, but the deal applies only to users who have already registered their cards)