Historic, controversial, vital — you could think of endless adjectives to describe this year’s presidential race, and every one of them describes why people were so eager to go to the polls and cast their vote yesterday. This race brought potential for many firsts in our nation: the first-ever black president, the first-ever female president, and the first-ever female vice president.

Either way, we knew history was in the making. This election also came at one of the lowest points in our nation’s history, and turnout was spurred by the hope that one candidate could get us headed down the road to economic recovery. While we cannot say there was clearly a strong candidate in the race, there was excitement and interest at a level we haven’t seen in a long time.

Chilton County’s political races have also been historic, controversial and vital. We have seen much debate over the structure of our county government, including the commission and tax offices. There is disagreement over how these officials should be elected, and how they should represent our county. On a smaller scale than that of our nation, Chilton County has its own economic problems that have been reflected in budgeting dilemmas and growing pains.

Those whom we have chosen to take our nation, county and cities and lead them into the next four years all have a daunting task ahead of them, and they cannot do it by themselves, nor should we expect them to. Sometimes this requires delegating the right tasks to the right people, and knowing who can get things done.

In every political office, we need leaders that will make the difficult decisions needed to put us on the right road. These decisions may not always be popular, but they must be made with careful deliberation and unity.

Let’s hope the people made the right choice.