You can’t go home again — not when your home is the Republican stronghold of Oconee County and you are John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

While voter turnout was expected to set a record in Oconee, native son Edwards couldn’t take credit. Most voters were said to be choosing the Bush-Cheney GOP ticket over Kerry-Edwards.

That’s what happened in 2000, when voters here went 15,325 for Bush over then-Democratic candidate Al Gore, who received 7,545 votes.

And when it comes to homegrown politicians on the national stage, Oconee voters prefer another native son. That’s Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who isn’t running this year.

“Lindsey is more a hometown boy,” said Sheriff James Singleton, as he shook hands outside the Shaver Recreation Center.

Graham is 49; Edwards is 51. Both were born in Seneca. Graham grew up in Seneca, while Edwards left before finishing elementary school, moving to Georgia, then to North Carolina.

In a Monday interview, Graham said he had already voted by absentee ballot — for the Bush-Cheney ticket, of course.

“All of us are very proud of what John has accomplished,” Graham said. “But John’s political agenda is closer to Hollywood than it is to Seneca.”

Graham predicted a 60 percent to 40 percent victory for Bush in Oconee, where voters for the first time were using electric voting machines — 179 of them.

Edwards does have his supporters, including several dozen uncles, aunts and cousins who still live in the area. First cousin Teresa Sills, 46, cast her vote for Edwards shortly after noon.

“We’re very proud of him, whether he wins or loses,” Sills said. Her mother and Edwards’ mother are sisters, she said.

Singleton and other Oconee officials said they had never seen so heavy a turnout. More than 4,600 people had requested absentee ballots, and Tuesday morning voter lines numbered in the hundreds.

But officials said the heavy turnout was not because Edwards was running.

“People are concerned about the country, and that’s why they’re voting,” Seneca Mayor Dan Alexander said. Contested county races and a referendum on a one-cent sales tax also drew voters.

Like other Upstate counties, Oconee has been turning Republican for 20 years. Countywide, only two Democrat officials remain, a probate judge and the clerk of court.

The record-setting turnout overshadowed the drama of any individual race. “We’re on a roll; this is amazing,” said Bonnie Moses, 82, a poll manager.

Oconee GOP chairman Ed Rumsey scoffed at the notion Edwards’ roots could attract local voters. “He’s not a hometown boy. He grew up in North Carolina.”