Many people have been waiting to hear what will happen with Congress as a result of the 2022 midterm election.

As of Friday morning, we still don’t know what will take place in the United States Senate. It comes down to three races, a runoff in Georgia and two more in Arizona and Nevada that hadn’t finished counting votes.

It would have been good to find out about Arizona and Nevada sooner. That way we’d be as up to date as possible about where it stands.

From a media standpoint, timeliness is critical. People want to know election results as soon as possible. By the following morning, we should be able to have everything counted.

When it’s not, people wonder why it’s taking so long.

Don’t they have enough election judges?

Is it taking time to count mail-in ballots?

Is there some other reason?

In the past several years, America has faced issues with false claims of election fraud. Every reputable media organization has called the claims false, yet some with agendas persist in saying there’s truth behind them.

A certain percentage of the public pay attention to alternative media without thinking critically. They follow it just because their relatives or friends like it. They don’t go further to find other better resources.

If more people still read daily newspapers and still watched the nightly news, we’d have a much better informed society. They would demand that conspiracy theories be backed up with real evidence or else denounced.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this week’s delays lead to more false claims of fraud. To prevent that, it’s helpful to get results out to the public in a way that’s as efficient as possible.

It might help to have more uniformity with vote count standards in all 50 states. Maybe there should be some guidelines that all must follow. When 50 states do the process 50 different ways, it can lead to unexpected delays in at least one or two places, which might leave something like the 2022 Senate result hanging in the balance.

Having said that, I also have to give credit where credit is due for all the outstanding work performed by election officials throughout the nation. We’re very fortunate to have an election system that works as well as it does.

There’s something about elections that still brings everyone together. They’re a process that makes everyone equal by upholding the standard of how one person equals one vote.

The United States is a very large, diverse country. In recent years much has been said about how different states in different regions always seem to vote. It could be easy to think that it’s highly divided.

In reality, however, there are many voters throughout the country who don’t conform to the stereotypes. There’s probably no neighborhood or community where everyone feels the exact same way on all the issues.

Everyone can have a role in making Election Day decisions. Every vote counts. There’s often at least one surprise, at least one situation where a race or a referendum question doesn’t go as expected.

Hopefully that tradition is being passed along to our younger generation. There seems to be an interest among young people in the future of America. It should translate into strong voter participation, along with ongoing interest in what happens in Congress and at state capitals.

Possibly the only thing worse than ignorance is total apathy. If people give up their right to participate in the democratic process, there are organizations that would be more than happy to have all the influence.

That didn’t happen in 2022. The voters spoke. It’s a beginning, a first step toward setting the course for upcoming months. Everyone who earned a voter sticker deserves credit for taking the time to be heard.

It might take time for every vote to be counted, often more time than we’d like. In the end, when it’s done, they all play a role in shaping our future.

— Jim Muchlinski is a long time reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent