As the first day of on campus voting began in the Dudley multipurpose room on Saturday at 10 a.m., registered voters came to cast their ballots for their choice of candidates. “I got up early just so that I could get a good place in line to vote. Since turning 18, I knew that I had to be a part of this historical event in history,” said Marissa Evans, sophomore journalism major from Dallas, TX.

    Voters seemed anxious and undecided about whether their votes would matter in this election based on the problems of the last election. While the sun rose behind Dudley, the lines began to grow and voters showed their support by wearing buttons, hats and shirts of their choice of the presidential candidates. Based on the polls in early voting, Democrats are racing to polls to be counted.  According to local and state election figures, three Democrats have voted for every one Republican in Guilford County through Wednesday. The ratio is 2-1 across North Carolina. No one is talking but the strong anticipation of an African-American president is in the air.      

       “Having Sen. Barack Obama as our president is really what America needs right now; we are currently in a crisis financial and economically and we need a change,” said Mark Williams, A&T employee from Winston-Salem, NC. Republicans are trying to mobilize those who have not voted yet by phone calls and door-knocking in order to persuade them why voting is important to do. Since Wednesday, Guilford County has counted at least 20 percent more voters than the same week in 2004. Extra voting machines have been added since Oct. 16 in order to reduce the lines.

The Democrat turnout may have been a result from Obama’s focus on North Carolina this year; there are more than 45 Democrat campaign offices compared with McCain’s 35 across the state. Democrats focused on early voting, while Republicans said they aimed for voters to mobilize on Election Day. Seven voting centers have opened up in Greensboro since Saturday such as Old County Courthouse on W. Market St, the Ag Center located on Burlington Rd., Barber Park Simkins Pavilion located on Dan’s Rd, Brown Recreation Center on E. Vandalia, Craft Recreation Center on Yanceyville St., Greensboro Coliseum on W. Lee St. and Gateway University Campus on Summit Ave. As of last Wednesday, more than 832,000 ballots have been casted statewide and the state could gain a third of that total in one week of voting. North Carolina is getting to the polls and casting their votes, shouldn’t you be doing the same?

• Danielle Dailey