“I just can’t wait until the whole thing is over.”

The quote reported by the Associated Press in Monday’s article on “anxious voters” was made by a 58-year-old woman from Warren, Michigan, who just voted. But the quote could have been made just about anywhere in the U.S.

Everybody is anxious about the results of this presidential election. At the same time, we are all tired of the political ads on TV, the text messages and calls on our phones from party workers hunting for votes. We are all tired of hearing about political signs being stolen and nasty words exchanged between the individual party supporters.

Despite all the chaos, we marched to the polling places, courthouses and mail boxes in record numbers. Right here in Lyon County, Auditor/Treasurer E.J. Moberg reported that 50% of registered voters had already voted by Monday. And 16 of the 33 precincts have a turnout of 80% or higher.

After the polls close today, there are two things voters should take into consideration while they wait for results. First, be patient. It will take time for election officials to count the record number of ballots cast. And we all should be proud of that.

Secondly, we need to come together as a nation. And come together as a community. While we can congratulate the winners in our local races, we can also show compassion toward the losers like columnist Mark Shields suggests on this same page. It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there and run for office. It takes a lot of personal work and sacrifice.

Unity is a tough goal to achieve in this time of national division. But reaching out to both winners and losers in our local races could be a good start