They are nervous in Yadkinville.
Nervous about the economy. Nervous about the state of family values in America. Nervous about the bouncing price of gas at the local Conoco. And most of all, they are nervous that the candidate who represents them best on these issues will not make it into the White House today.
"I'm just scared Obama's gonna get it," said Yadkinville resident Kara Ball, who is also office manager at The Yadkin Ripple.
And in North Carolina's most conservative county, Ball is far from the only one who harbors this fear.
"I don't think McCain will pull it out, but I sure hope he will," said W.G. Dinkins, a precinct chairperson for Yadkinville. "These here loud-mouth liberal Democrats. All they want is power, and we've got too many of them as far as I'm concerned."
But however strong the county's political leanings, this is a place that does not wear its politics on its sleeves. Last week in Yadkinville there were more pumpkin decorations in the town's residential neighborhoods than political signs, and the line of early voters was subdued and quiet-not a protester or even a political T-shirt in sight as residents politely waited in the 30-minute line that curled through the county courthouse Friday afternoon.
Many of these would-be voters expressed concern about Sen. Barack Obama's meteoric rise to fame and said they are simply looking for an experienced leader who shares their values to be the next president.
"It's just about putting God, family and Christianity first," Ball said.
But the uneven political dynamic here still sneaks its way into the public eye. On the corner of Main and State streets, a lone sign for Lt. Gov Bev Purdue, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, was conspicuous amid a sea of about 15 placards for Republican candidates, and McCain-Palin bumper stickers outnumber their Obama-Biden counterparts in nearly every parking lot.
Then there are the party headquarters. The Yadkin County Republicans' small office occupies a place of prominence downtown across from the courthouse. The word GOP is spelled out in brown brick over its entrance and a slew of colorful signs in the windows display the names of Republican candidates for office, from president all the way down to county commissioner.
It might not be much to look at, but for Yadkin County Democratic Party Chair Hassel Brown, the GOP's office is something to be coveted-the Democrats don't have any office at all.
"We've just never been able to get the money together," Brown said. "But it is one of our goals."
Even if they had a home, however, Brown said the party would always have trouble making inroads in this conservative stronghold. And this election holds a special challenge.
"You'd be surprised at how many people here-even some Democrats-are not going to vote for Obama because he's black," he said. "I've had people tell me they just can't do it."
And other Democrats have struggled in Yadkin County as well. When Roy Carter, the Democratic candidate for Congress in North Carolina's 5th District, stumped in Yadkinville Oct. 13, only a dozen people attended his rally, according to The Yadkin Ripple.
But there are at least a few Yadkinites who proudly announce their support for the Democrats, and Obama in particular. Sitting on a bench outside the Midtown Barber & Salon, Warren Conner, a Greensboro transplant who has lived in Yadkin County for five years, called the Illinois senator "a politician who might finally bring a change." And not just for the country as a whole-for Yadkin County, too.
"[People here] might not see it now, but I think give them a year or two and they'll probably be feeling it," he said.
But if history is any guide, residents of this rural county, where cows and tobacco fields dominate much of the landscape, will likely stick with what they know in today's election, Yadkinville Mayor Hubert Gregory said. And that means voting a straight GOP ticket.
In the office of The Yadkin Ripple, framed, yellowing editions of past Election-Day papers corroborate that story. Beneath a smiling photograph of John Kennedy, the Nov. 10, 1960 paper announces "OVERWHELMING MAJORITIES RETURN COUNTY TO REPUBLICAN COLUMN."
"NIXON IN A LANDSLIDE" reads the Nov. 9, 1972 Ripple front-page.
Come tomorrow, there will be a new headline to add to that wall, one that tells the next chapter in the story of a county with a resolute grip on its conservative values.
Some things never change.
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