and it's all over...

That's it.

It's over.

The thing we've heard about for the majority of our time here in the US.

The presidential elections.

We turned the tv on at dinner time last night and watched it until gone 11pm. All along they said it would be close and for most of the evening the exit polls and early counts showed it was close. But as the night wore on Romney was starting to inch ahead. Then suddenly Obama gained a few important electoral votes and it quickly turned his way. Around 11:15pm it was announced that Obama had won. Not all of the votes were in but he had won the 270 electoral votes needed to win overall. Unfortunately I fell asleep around 11pm and missed the dramatic finish! Typical!

We were watching CNN's coverage (supposed to be the most balanced) and they had live streaming from all over including the Empire State Building:

At the end of the night the top of it was lit up to show the result - blue (for Obama) 

So Obama will be President for another 4 years.

It was fascinating to have lived here during it. To talk to friends about what it is like to vote. Because it's not as simple as pick a party and vote for the local representative.

Here (well in the state of Michigan anyway) you vote for about 20 different things from drain commissioner, sheriff, clerk, judge, senate, president, school commissioners, board for the university and the 6 proposals including whether to build a bridge.

The roads are lined with signs stuck into the grass in people's front yards with the names of the people they want you to vote for or "Say yes to proposal 4" or "No on 2". I know the name of the local sheriff and drain commissioner because I have driven past dozens of signs with their names on the school run for weeks!

It's so complicated and takes so long to read through all of the proposals and list of 'electees' that you are allowed to take notes into the voting booth! It takes so long that lines were forming in the voting stations from as early as 6:30am. Some people had to wait for 2 hours to be able to cast their vote.

I hear that the wording of the proposals is really confusing and the propaganda makes it even worse. The tv channels and radio stations have been full of aggressive adverts for and against the proposals and the two parties.

But it's all over now. Life can return to normal.