With the election tomorrow...

I expect most of us are feeling a bit of "campaign fatigue" by now.  With the election just hours away, all of us are hoping that people will go to the polls and exercise their right to vote.  

I'm really lucky.  My polling place is a just a short walk from my house. Often, we'll pick a beautiful sunny day during the early voting period, and my husband and I will walk over together to vote. We are grateful for our freedom to do that. But then I think about elections in countries where you may really be opening yourself to threats, intimidation or harm when you go to vote. Like the election in Libya earlier this year -- the first election in over four decades. Or the elections in Cote d'Ivoire that ended up in a violent conflict between two factions, both claiming victory, or in Congo where 24 people were killed in election violence. And then I'm grateful that I can vote in complete safety.  

It would be incredible if in the United States we would all take voting as seriously as they do in countries where a purple thumb or finger is a badge of honor. 

We're not a partisan organization, although I'd say that most of us who work here have our own, strong personal opinions. We have one hold out for election day voting but the rest of us have cast our votes already. What we hope as an organization, more than anything, is that whoever is elected tomorrow, moves the consideration of and action on the human crises and atrocities continuing across the world up on the United States' priority list.