Only a few short weeks have passed since Election Day, but it already feels like a lifetime ago. No longer are voters in swing states subjected to nonstop political ads, and the evening news is once again covering a host of national and international issues instead of just wall-to-wall coverage of the presidential campaign. But, Election Day was as much a starting line as it was an end point. Now is the time to reflect back on the 2012 election and look toward what’s to come in 2013.

Another election season has come to an end and I want to give a huge round of applause to all of you – voters, League Leaders, poll workers, poll watchers!  Many of you worked tirelessly registering voters at thousands of registration events, providing millions of voters with the information they needed through printed materials, online resources, hosting candidate debates and forums, encouraging your friends and family to vote, and engaging your community in other ways.

I voted this morning at my public library today in the battleground state of Virginia. Arriving before 8 am, I was surprised to see the line of mostly young professionals already snaking through the parking lot and down the sidewalk. I should have brought coffee, I grumbled to myself.