ELAND, Fla. - The hairdressers have heard it all and then some.
''The politicians should have to stand where I stand all day,'' said Deborah Kirchhoff, 41, who clips hair at Great Expectations. ''They wouldn't believe the stories.''
Taking a cigarette break outside the salon on DeLand's main thoroughfare, the hairdressers spoke of clients dying for lack of medicine, clients unable to afford food for their families, clients heartbroken over boyfriends fighting other countries' wars.
Now the hairdressers have to decide which presidential candidate would do the best by those clients. The problem is they lean one way economically, another socially, toward one party on military issues, toward another on personal freedoms. As Kirchhoff put it, with the election only days away, ''I'm still sitting in the middle of the fence.''
Florida was supposed to be sewn up long ago, a sweep for the candidate whose brother happens to be governor of the state. But George W. Bush now finds himself in a down-to-the-wire race with Al Gore. One or the other - or their wives or parents or running mates - always seems to be stumping somewhere in the state. Both major political parties have poured millions of dollars into advertising and get-out-the vote efforts.
Across Volusia County, interest in the outcome is higher than ever. A record 260,000 residents are registered to vote, a 7.1 percent jump over 1996. DeLand, the county seat where almost 19,000 people live, is no exception.
''Florida will be a swing state and we're proud to be part of that,'' said Thelma Martin, 57, who was out waving a placard for the Democrat whose campaign for state representative she is managing. ''Our votes really count.''
On redone Woodland Boulevard, which won the Great American Main Street award in 1997 and which locals refer to as their main street, most everyone was conversant in presidential politics, from a record store clerk to a coffeehouse owner to a professor at Stetson University. Despite being located near the edge of America, DeLand considers itself an informed and eclectic place, where Thai, Cuban, and Italian cuisine can be found downtown.
But all the attention Florida has received hasn't done much to settle their minds. Those who aren't elderly, or ill, or parents or homeowners entitled to tax breaks find themselves wondering where they will fit during the next administration. For her part, Kirchhoff questioned what the candidates have to offer adult women without husbands or children. ''Where do I get a break?'' she asked.
''It seems like they're either pushing for things for the rich rich or the poor poor,'' said Peggy Shotton, 55, a Gore supporter who owns the Goosefeathers clothing and vintage furniture store. ''People like me lose all the way around. We make too much money to get benefits and not enough to buy things for yourself.''
Added Steve Chmielewski, 38, who owns the Downtown Music store nearby and ''probably'' will go for Gore, too, ''For how much they're talking, I don't feel like they're addressing me. I don't even feel like they have any idea what we're about in Florida. It's not like 20 years ago. It's not all a retirement community anymore.''
Still, even in a small city where 2,000 students attend college, Medicaid and Social Security are a concern for locals, if not for them personally then for their parents or grandparents. The difficulty has been in deciphering which candidate's plan will benefit whom. The same goes for any number of issues, residents said, from education spending to military intervention overseas to Supreme Court nominations.
''You know their politics so you have to remember that they're saying whatever it is they think they need to put out there,'' said Denise Duty, 34, a bank teller who cast her ballot for Bush early because she is due to give birth any day.
Seated outdoors at They-Call-It-Macaroni restaurant for lunch the other day, Sheryl Trinkle and Vanessa Walton discussed the candidates' stands on issues important to them and tried to reach a decision. Both women are 27, both voted for Bill Clinton, and both work in child care, one as a center director, one as a teacher. But Trinkle identifies herself as a Republican, Walton a Democrat.
''I don't know what I'll do because I honestly can't figure it out,'' said Walton, adding that she'll probably stick with Gore.
Said Trinkle, likely to go with Bush, ''One is good on the issues on one thing and as soon as you reach a decision, the other one comes out with a position you like.''
Two other friends, resting on a park bench, said they were sticking with their parties, too, although each found something to like in the other's candidate and something to dislike in his own.
Chris Grumley, a 21-year-old chemistry major at Stetson who was raised in a Republican household, said his ballot will go to Bush because he questions Gore's honesty although he appreciates his experience. L.A. Pride, 30, a self-employed multimedia technician used to being asked for identification to verify his name, said he favors Bush's plans for Social Security but trusts Gore more to do right by all Americans.
''They can't promise everything to all of us, but they try to,'' Pride said. ''Either way, the way things have been going for so many years no one person in Washington affects my life on a daily basis. It just seems like presidents in the past were able to get more things done.''
