When Sterling residents came out to vote on Election Day, it was with a sense of duty and pride. And when rival party members stood yards from each other, pushing their respective sample ballots onto voters, they still treated each other with more than a little respect.
"There's no animosity," said Michael Meador, precinct chair for the Sterling district for the Loudoun County Republican Party. "For us, politics is second. We're all human first."
Meador stood with a few volunteers, both Democratic and Republican, by the dumpsters behind Rolling Ridge Elementary School. The only problem the polling place had experienced by mid-morning Tuesday was a dispute between election officers and partisan volunteers on exactly how many feet they had to stand from the door. The volunteers with their sample ballots had been moved another 60 feet or so from the entrance — farther from the door than the allotted 40 feet but, on the bright side, also farther from the dumpsters.
Other than that, the morning had been glitch-free.
"I've been pleased with the way things are going," Meador said.
THE ROLLING RIDGE precinct recorded over a 90 percent voter turnout rate in 2000, according to election officer Roxanne Tyra.
"I expect to be busy all day," Tyra said. She predicted a 75 to 80 percent turnout for the county, compared to the 72 percent reported in 2000.
Willie West, a volunteer for the Democrats, felt that angry citizens drove the projected high turnout.
"We just feel so disenfranchised over the last four years," West said. "There's been a rubber stamp — if Bush wants it, Congress passes it."
Don Miller, a cartographer for the United States Geological Survey, took a less impassioned view of why he voted.
"It's part of my constitutional right to vote and I can't complain if I don't vote," Miller said.
He added, however, that the increased interest in this election could have been manufactured.
"We've been whipped into a frenzy by the reporters and the candidates themselves," Miller said. The war and terrorism, he said, had scared people into action.
Eddie J. Newman, a retired custodian, voted for a simple reason.
"I hope I can make things better," he said. "I want to see things get a little better so people can afford things."
SCHOOL BOARD member J. Warren Geurin volunteered his time at Sterling Middle School for the Republican cause on Tuesday morning. He was confident that Loudoun would speak for the country as a whole in its presidential choice.
"Loudoun County is ground zero for why the president's economic plan has worked the last four years," Geurin said, citing the county's rapid population and job growth.
He also felt that the results would be known by the time Tuesday ended, blaming at least part of the 2000 confusion on overeager television reporters.
"What prompted last time was the television stations saying one thing at 10 o'clock and another thing at 11 o'clock," he said.
This time, no one wanted to see a repeat of 2000 — but voters demonstrated some uncertainty about avoiding a similar debacle.
"Four years ago, we had a problem, and I don't think they've fixed it yet," Miller said.
DANIEL BRIGHAM, a fitness counselor, said, "I think people are concerned about our aggression in the world," Brigham said. "George Bush blew off the anti-war movement like it was nothing."
Susan Sommers, an employee of National Wildlife Federation in Reston, echoed Brigham's concerns about worldwide ramifications of American policies.
"I'm just scared what trouble Bush is stirring up," she said. "He makes people mad and they could come over here and bomb us."
The Democrats were easily found on Tuesday morning — something that might seem surprising in historically Republican Loudoun. Alice Watt, a volunteer for the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, said she thought people were less likely to share their political views in this highly-charged election.
"People seem to be more reluctant to say who they support," she said, adding that a neighbor had noticed her Kerry bumper sticker and obliquely told her he supported her cause.
"He wouldn't come out and say it," Watt said. "I think there's a lot of people like that."