Will Reagan Democrats Become Romney Democrats on Tuesday?

With just about every political pollster and pundit predicting the outcome of Tuesday’s dead-heat presidential race, we decided to conduct our own friendly neighborhood poll on the Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park Facebook pages.

The results revealed some interesting anecdotal information that may or may not be considered “trend worthy” of today’s political landscape.

Veteran GOP strategist Mary Matalin predicted a Reagan-style victory for Romney by 7-percentage points during a talk at Saint Xavier University last week—the same spread that catapulted Republican Ronald Reagan into the presidency over one-termer, Democrat President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Not only did Reagan win the presidency that year, he carried Illinois thanks to droves of blue-collar, middle class voters who typically voted Democrat but crossed party lines to vote Republican.

Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn Patch readers revealed they preferred the Republican Mitt Romney to the Democrat, Barack Obama, 49 to 16. The results didn’t surprise me too much considering the number of Romeny/Ryan signs I’ve seen stuck into local lawns.

Could this be taken as a sign of history repeating itself? Democrats crossing party lines to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 the way Democrats voted for Reagan in 1980?

Professor Dick Simpson of the University of Illinois-Chicago and a former Chicago alderman, said that 2012 would probably be a good year for the Democrats.

“There won’t be Reagan Democrats to the extent there were in 1980. It’s not going to be anything like that in Illinois,” Simpson said.

In addition to votes for Obama and Romney, Pedro, Gary Johnson, Snoopy, Peanut Tillman and Jesus each received one vote in the friendly Patch Facebook presdiential poll.

Here’s what readers had to say:

Ken Smith - "Benghazi. 8% unemployment. Lowered credit ratings -twice. Higher gas prices. Higher food prices. higher utility prices. The [clown] in the White House said if he didn't get the job done in 4 years - he'd be a 1 term President. I'm going to help him keep his word! ROMNEY -RYAN!!!”

Margaret Brindl – “They are both morons. This country is screwed!”

Patricia Aceves-Tapia -- "Romney-Ryan!!! I can't take 4 more years of Obama.”

Justyna Kr – “Five-person family—five votes for Romney/Ryan!!!”

Laurie Kintner Bugai – “I have been 'polled' a number of times. I can tell you polls are highly unreliable, even one like this. I have lied every time I have been asked to respond to a poll, or maybe not. I have also given very conflicting information when the polls were conducted for/by certain candidates. I can tell you a lot of people I know do this for the simple reason that polls take such a small number then report it as a representative sample and therefore must be the trend.”

Monica Kramer – “What happened to the days when people were more discreet about who they vote for in elections? My parents told me when I was young that you never ask someone how much money they make, how old they were, or for who they vote.”

Amber Keska-Medina: "I stand up for my beliefs and I'm a proud American to say I'm voting for Romney!”

Allison Murphy-Herman – “Romney, if Obama wins our children will suffer from that Jack wagon. He's a COMMUNIST who hates America!”

Louise Kenerson-Walker – “To his haters: PRESIDENT OBAMA, just because you dont acknowledge him as President, doesn't negate the fact that he is! Sorry but that seat is occupied and will remain occupied by Mr. President Obama! BAM!”

So how about it? Did you vote for president yet? Give us your best pundit prediction in the comments.