Following a job interview this year, Megan Johnson sent a handwritten thank you on fine stationery. But she didn't make the impression she intended.

"You aren't a Republican, are you?" asked the hiring manager during a follow-up phone call. Ms. Johnson was stumped, until she remembered the small blue elephant with an upturned trunk engraved along the upper margin of her note card.

"That was out of left field," says Ms. Johnson, 35 years old, who was applying for a marketing position at a West Coast technology company. She explained that the elephant was supposed to represent good luck. She didn't get the job. "It was just a very strange moment," she says.

In the vast majority of cases, very little good can come of including personal politics in the hiring process. In a sense, it is inevitable that during the current heated presidential election season politics will creep into all kinds of discussions, including job interviews. Yet career experts are resounding in their agreement that such a polarizing topic, which has no real bearing on a candidate's ability to perform a job, should be avoided at all costs.

Still, the topic comes up more often that you would think. In this season of polls, TheLadders.com, a job board in New York for people seeking jobs with salaries over $100,000, recently asked site members, "Have you ever been asked to state your voting intentions for this year's presidential race during an interview?" A surprising 82 people, or about 11% of 736 respondents, clicked "yes."

"I don't think people were accidentally hitting one button, it looks like it was a real 10%" based on accounts provided by some respondents, says Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of the job site. "As a topic that is going to create potential dynamite in an interview, voting preference would be the most explosive issue people are facing," he adds.

Eric Gelman, 39, a senior marketing executive based in Philadelphia, says he was asked whom he would be voting for in two separate job interviews in the past two months. In the first case, mention of the Republican National Convention led to a discussion about politics more generally and "one thing led to another and essentially she had asked, 'So, who are you going to vote for in the election?' " he says. The second interviewer asked, "What do you think you're going to do at election time?" Both times he was evasive. "I said, 'I'm undecided,' " he recalls.

Asking questions about political leanings, however awkward and inappropriate, doesn't break any employment laws. In fact, during a job interview, "nothing is illegal to ask on its face," says Deb Keary, director of the information center at the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va.

It is, however, illegal to discriminate based on gender, race, national origin, sexual preference, religion, age or disability, so if a candidate who fielded a question about one of those areas doesn't get a job, the person can make a case that he or she was discriminated against, thus opening a company up to litigation.

Interviewers should inquire into those areas only if they have some bearing on your ability to perform a job. "Bona fide occupational qualifications" for some jobs necessitate questions about gender or disability, for example. A women's restroom attendant should be female. A stevedore should have a strong back. But for the majority of jobs this shouldn't be an issue.

When it comes to political leanings, "being a Republican or a Democrat isn't yet a protected class," Ms. Keary quips. Yet even if such questions can't prompt a discrimination suit, her advice to hiring managers remains the same: "Just keep it job-related, it's not that hard."

For job seekers, the rule of thumb is to "avoid anything that's even going to provide a hint of being controversial," says John Murphy, co-founder of the Interview Club, an interview training and job-hunting skills group in New York. When an inappropriate question comes up, "try to deflect it and move on," he says.

Say something factually true that doesn't answer the question. For instance, you can simply tell your interviewer, "It's looks like an extremely close race. I haven't made up my mind."

Rather than tell an interviewer he has asked an unfortunate question, you can ask, "How is this related to the job?" or "Is this something that's important to your hiring decision?" Steer the conversation immediately back to your qualifications for the position. If someone persists, you might begin to question whether you want to work for that manager or that company.

Interviewers shouldn't take all the blame for awkward interview moments. Sometimes candidates carried away by enthusiasm or nerves volunteer an opinion that turns an interview down a wrong path -- or stops it in its tracks. Other times, an attempt to sound informed backfires.

Jerry Ostergaard, 44, recalls being interviewed several years ago for a public-relations position at the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission. There was a four-way primary race for governor on at the time, and Mr. Ostergaard volunteered who his choice would be, thinking it a relevant topic. But from that moment on the interview fizzled out. "Needless to say, I didn't get a call back on that one," he says.

He has a new approach today. If he is asked about his political leanings during his current job search, he says, "I would honestly say I'm undecided."