As the dust settled in the 2012 election and local political seers were crunching numbers, it became clear Haywood County had more Republican votes than any other time in its history.

Even though there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in Haywood, 19,449 to 12,580, there’s a growing number of unaffiliated voters, a number that stood at 11,002 for the November election.

About half of all the Republicans and Democrats voting in the November election chose the straight party ticket option.

“It’s a little surprising,” said Republican County Commissioner Kevin Ensley, who easily won re-election, leading the ticket for the county board race. “I’ve been running since 1998, and I think this is the biggest Republican year I’ve ever seen.”

For president, there were 3,800 more votes cast ...