By Donna Brazile and Trey Grayson
Congratulations, fellow Southerners and fellow Americans — after months of campaigning, debating, conventions, and punditry, we have finally made it past Election Day.
We turned out in record numbers and made our voices heard in our democratic process. We — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — should all be proud that we exercised our constitutional right to vote, even in the middle of a deadly pandemic. And as Americans from both sides of the aisle who have worked on election integrity for many decades, we want to personally thank you for doing your part.
We should all be ecstatic at the voter turnout we have seen this year, which smashed a century-old record. It solidifies our belief that the American people believe in democracy. Despite the pandemic, people across the country embraced their civic duty — including here in Georgia. But despite the actual casting of our votes having ended, our responsibilities as Americans aren’t yet complete. We still have a job to do. As diligently as we organized to make a plan to vote and to get to the polls to support our favored candidates, we must now ensure that the constitutional process of counting our votes moves forward, and we must remain both calm and vigilant while all of our votes are counted — and recounted.
The good news is that state and local election officials have rules and procedures in place to ensure that those who participated in our democracy, regardless of whom they voted for, are counted. At the same time, we must strongly discourage partisan activists from engaging in any efforts to slow or halt the counting of legitimately cast ballots.
We always knew it would take more time to determine the results this year than during a typical election. Due to COVID-19, more than 65 million mail-in ballots were cast across the nation, including more than 1 million here in Georgia. This was not a normal year, but it was also not our first election during a national crisis. Simply put, if we could hold free and fair elections during the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, and two world wars, then we must trust that the electoral process will remain free and fair today, too. Our democratic systems have stood the test of time, and we know they will work this year, too.
Georgians in particular are used to elections that extend beyond Election Day in November. In 2008, while the rest of the country had moved past the presidential election, Georgians took to the polls again to make their voices heard in an important U.S. Senate runoff. This year, Georgia will have not one, but two, U.S. Senate runoff races taking place in January. This is our constitutional system working. We hold free and fair elections, and we count every vote cast in accordance with applicable laws in order to determine the winners.
The United States and our democratic electoral system have set an example for countries around the world for the past 250 years. As Americans, we should be incredibly proud to have participated in the democratic process this year. Just like building our homes, our elections are a lengthy process. Organizing lays the foundation. Debates are the structural walls. Casting our votes puts the roof up. And now, counting every vote is the regular upkeep that ensures our homes stand — until the next election, when we can make our voices heard again to protect our democracy and our home, our great country.
The writers are Democrat Donna Brazile, a former chair for the Democratic National Committee, and Republican Trey Grayson, a former secretary of State of Kentucky. Both are members of the National Council on Election Integrity.
