Michael Copley

Rain and cold hasn’t kept voters away from the polls today but the mood relayed by polling station volunteers is mixed.

Inclement weather has traditionally played in the Republicans’ favor, but fervor surrounding this election seems to have changed today’s landscape.
The parking lot at St. John Neumann Catholic Church was, according to volunteers, full at six o’clock this morning and the line ran out the door.

“A lot of people are coming out,” said Duke Brown, a McCain volunteer at the church, “They’re scared this is going to go the wrong way.”

But the volunteers who stood with Sen. John Watkins at the Huguenot Fire Department painted a slightly different picture.

They said despite high voter turn out, over 330 by 10:30 a.m., the over all mood is subdued.

One volunteer described the scene as melancholy and speculated that citizens are just tired of hearing all of the campaign ads, that they’re are ready to have the election behind them.

Rain is expected on and off for the rest of the afternoon but it probably won’t play a part in the outcome of the election. Polls are likely to be most crowded around lunch and dinner today, but folks hoping to outsmart the crowds are keeping some polling stations busy at all hours.

At 11:00 a.m., a line upwards of 30 people stood and talked quietly outside of the polls at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Ridge Rd., waiting for their chance to have a say.