Elections season is getting hotter and heavier now — and, single women, we're les objets d'affection.

The candidates are like the guy who buys a drink and follows you around the bar. Or just keeps calling (or texting) even though you're not sure if you're that into him — and to whom you may regret giving your number. Just a little.

The political pundits have sliced and diced the demographics of this presidential contest, especially on the Democratic side of the aisle (which has me wondering who controls the blind, gay vote? I don't think they've covered that one). Working-class whites mostly favor Sen. Hillary Clinton. Young voters flock to Sen. Barack Obama.

And, with a woman and a black man in the running, black women should just be confused (I thought about voting for Sen. John McCain, just to throw them all off).

But, according to the pundits, single women are a powerful demographic; we're the masses of the unmarried who, census data suggest, finally rival the number of married ladies (take that, 1996's “Soccer Moms” and 2004's “Security Moms”!).

We've been dubbed the Single Anxious Female vote(I'm no more anxious than the next person about the Iraq war, health care and the economy); and the “Sex and the City” vote (And where's the “Desperate Housewives” vote?).

One online magazine, Jezebel, even went so far as to call us the “elusive slutty anxious female demographic” (“slutty in a political sense, of course,” CNN anchor Carol Costello added during a Nov. 1 “Situation Room” discussion on stereotypes, single female voters and Hillary Clinton).
 But women, slutty? You mean to tell me that voting men haven't dipped their wick (in a political sense, of course) and tried out the platforms of different candidates?

OK, OK, I admit I briefly hooked up with a presidential hopeful. I'd been spurned and burned by a current commander in chief and just needed some lovin'. She was experienced, and — nostalgic for an administration long gone (“our song” still brings tears to my eyes) — I listened, enraptured by her strength and direction.

But then, all of a sudden, the thrill was gone. She just didn't do it for me anymore. I tried to break it to her gently, gave her the whole “it's not you, it's me” spiel. I explained that it wasn't betrayal, but maybe just the wrong place and the wrong time.

And now I'm totally crushing on another candidate. I mean, some have said it's just infatuation and that I'm enamored with his sweet nothings, but we've been together for a couple of months now, and I think he may be The One.

But seriously, single women, no matter what your political persuasion, the numbers don't lie — we're out in full force. So mark your calendars, and let's make Nov. 4 a Ladies' Day Out.