Folks in Cedar County, Iowa, (search) are getting ready for the presidential election.
But during this race, county auditor Betty Ellerhoff would like to avoid what happened during the last presidential vote in this divided county: a virtual tie.
"It was at the end, when we printed our final reports, and I saw that we had a tie. I just about died," she told FOX News.
After all the absentee votes were counted Al Gore (search) took Cedar County by two votes.
"I believe both parties are working a little bit harder for various reasons, and one of them was the 2000 election, obviously," said Dennis Weih, a Cedar County Republican.
Weih said the GOP used to dominate the farm country of Cedar County, but things have changed. Democrats have gotten a foothold in the bigger towns, like West Branch.
Antiques dealer Norma Beecher has been reminding registered Democrats to get to the polls.
"We've got people asking to vote that hasn't voted in a long time," she said.
Despite the closeness last time, both sides insist that this election is not a grudge match. Many say that there is a polite disagreement about which candidate is going to win in the most evenly-divided county in the country.
"Oh, we're gonna win. I can answer that real easy," Beecher said.
But according to Weih, "I'm very confident that George W. Bush (search) is going to win Cedar County."
Both sides agree it's going to be close once again.
Click in the box near the top of the story to watch a report by FOX News' Steve Brown.
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