As with every election, the Busken presidential cookie pool has its rules, caveats, and provisos. The company takes phone orders and will ship the cookies anywhere in the United States, but only cookies purchased in its Cincinnati-area stores count toward the election total. And big purchases—like the 200 cookies that Rob Portman, former U.S. trade representative and director of the OMB in the Bush administration, sent to the McCain campaign—don't count either. "We don't allow them to stuff the ballot boxes," Busken says.