"Where there’s people, you’ll find a pollster” (c1968-74)

Editorial cartoon illustration with a witch flying above a town with a large full moon in the background. An airplane flies above the witch with an election’s pollster leaning out the window yelling “If the election were held today, who…” Above the image is the name of the illustration – Where there’s people, you’ll find a pollster.

Special Collections at the University of Southern Mississippi is the home to the AAEC Editorial Cartoon Collection. This collection includes more than 6,500 editorial cartoons produced between 1782 and 1980. Originally prepared for newspapers, magazines, and in some cases television, the cartoons address a spectrum of topics ranging from presidential elections to high school sports. The collection also presents commentary on the civil rights movement, Watergate, and the Vietnam War.

The editorial cartoon "Where there's people, you'll find a pollster" was created by cartoonist Eldon Pletcher (1922-2013) on Halloween sometime between 1968 and 1974. In the cartoon, a witch is seen flying into the sky on a broomstick. Above the witch is a pollster hanging out an airplane window shouting a question about an upcoming election.

This item was featured in the New Orleans Times-Picayune where Pletcher worked from 1966-1984. In addition to his time at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Pletcher also worked at the Sioux City Journal and Yank Magazine, the well-known Army periodical.

Pletcher's editorial cartoons and over 1,600 others can be found online in Special Collections' Digital Collections. For more information about this collection, contact Lorraine Stuart at Lorraine.Stuart@usm.edu.

Site Consulted

Elden Pletcher Obituary, Published by The Times-Picayune from September 19-20, 2013.

Text by Jennifer Brannock, Curator of Rare Books & Mississippiana.