Opinion: Waiting for election results stirs strong emotions.

It’s been described on social media as everything from waiting for biopsy results to undergoing wisdom tooth extraction.
Polls are closing in the west as I write this, but it could be hours or days before we know who the country’s next president will be. Final polling showed the race remained neck-and-neck right through Election Day, with even the most accurate prognosticators struggling to make the call. And Americans are all up in their feelings about it.  
Some have pledged to protect their mental health by committing to a news blackout until the results are tabulated and the race is called. Others have simply turned to Jesus for comfort.  
“I’m sitting here doing my dishes and watching the results come in,” 64-year-old Simpsonville, South Carolina resident Sharon Payne told me Tuesday evening. “When you’ve prayed about it, you can’t worry yourself to death about it.”
Still, the wait after a presidential election is never easy. It seems particularly painful this year. People are on edge. I’ve heard the word “terrified” repeatedly. There’s excitement among some, dread among others. Nerves are so raw for so many the bundles might as well exist outside our bodies.
This is a consequential election at a consequential time for this country. And it played out in wild fashion: One candidate had only three months to build a campaign. The other candidate was nearly assassinated – twice.
But there can only be one winner: Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
In 2016, many woke up the morning after Election Day to learn that Trump had won the election. But in 2020, we had to wait four excruciating days before the race was called for President Joe Biden. Trump would cause even more drama by repeatedly falsely stating that he won the election, followed by the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.  
The seven battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – will likely determine who will be America’s 47th president. Each one has different election laws, including some that have made it faster to count absentee ballots, vote by mail and overseas ballots.
Michigan, for example, now allows election workers to begin tabulating mailed-in ballots more than a week before Election Day. Those results cannot be revealed until after the polls close.
But state legislatures in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have not made similar changes to election procedures. Thus, it could take days to count those critical votes. 
Both Harris and Trump offer a first-in-history scenario. Harris could become the first woman to occupy the Oval Office. Trump, already the first former president in American history convicted of a crime, could become the first sitting president who is a felon.
And after all the contentious rhetoric and name calling between them, who did voters ultimately believe was best equipped to lead this country? They’ve both made campaign promises – as all presidential candidates do – to help get America back on track. There’s a lot to fix.
I would hope both Harris and Trump would prioritize unifying this country. I’ve lamented to friends lately that it seems as though Americans hate each other, that we’re unable to even communicate about partisan differences without throwing insults.
How long will it take for us to move beyond election hostilities? Can we?
 The polls have closed. The political ads have quieted. The debates among family members and colleagues are behind us, or at least they should be.
And we are feeling…
Hopeful? Fearful? Optimistic? Anxious? There’s no shortage of any of those sentiments – from Maine to California. Maybe we’re in store for a few nights of fitful sleep. Or maybe America will wake to the news of a new president. It’s as difficult to predict as this race has been.
So now we wait.
Suzette Hackney is a national columnist. Reach her on X: @suzyscribe