Voters across the country have their eyes glued to their television and computer screens, anxiously waiting for the votes to be tallied — again — as they witness history in the making.

And every citizen who took the few minutes to go to the polls and cast his or her vote can take pride in the fact that they contributed to an election for the recordbooks.

In Story County, more than 58 percent of the registered voters made their voices heard in the presidential election, as 35,301 of the 60,432 voters went to the polls Tuesday.

The presidential race currently hangs in limbo as the votes in Florida are recounted, and each candidate wavers within hundreds of votes of each other. Americans can no longer say that their vote doesn’t count.

All over the United States, the candidates were neck-in-neck all night, differing only by one or two percentage points in the battleground states.

Iowans especially have a reason to feel proud this November. Our state is one that is often overlooked in national politics, but this year we made a difference. Iowa was one of the four states that came down to the wire and may be pivotal in electing our next president.

It was heartening these last days to walk around the ISU campus and hear politics discussed everywhere. While our generation is often dubbed apathetic and disillusioned, college students were taking an active interest in the political process.

Even if it took a down-to-the-wire election to spark interest in the political process, it is time for the people of the United States to realize the power of their vote — democracy at its finest.