If you’re looking for a reason to be excited about voting today, consider where we’ve been as a country. It was a century and a half ago, almost to the day, that Abraham Lincoln was elected president of a fledgling United States.

If ever a politician’s election could be called a referendum on the direction of our nation, it would be Lincoln’s. He carried all of the free states, but not one slave state. He had vowed to prevent the expansion of slavery into new territories, and his victory was unpalatable to Southerners who wished to stop the decline of their political and economic influence. Long before the votes were cast it was clear the election of an anti-slavery president would split the nation apart. And by the day of Lincoln’s inauguration seven states had seceded and four more would follow after the battle at Fort Sumter.  

But it was not Abraham Lincoln who divided the North and South. Deeply ingrained and irreconcilable issues were what tore the country apart. Though the question of slavery has long been settled, many others remain relevant and contentious today. We still debate the proper role of the federal government, the extent of individual rights, the legal status of those who inhabit our country, taxation and societal mores. That we can discuss and disagree on those same questions without the country falling apart is a legacy of the voters of 1860 and the man they elected.

How does that relate to today’s vote? There has been an overarching narrative to this campaign cycle – one carefully packaged and marketed by partisan news organizations and the candidates themselves. They tell us we are a divided country. We are supposedly split between one of two entirely separate and incompatible visions for our nation. And according to this narrative we are going to the polls today not to make a decision together as a nation but to separate ourselves into red and blue.  

That’s not the way things are anymore. One hundred and fifty years ago divisions really did run so deep that no middle ground could be found. In 1860, people went to the polls to divide themselves. Their disagreements were so profound that a war was fought. But that’s over and done. We are left with the legacy of that fight: an indisputable national identity that allows for strong and competing visions.  

It is reassuring that no matter how caustic and hateful the cable news rhetoric and political ads become we can still get along. We can make changes that improve the lives of others, and we can reevaluate our decisions and admit mistakes. We can get things done despite our disagreements. This is not 1860. There are no longer fist fights on the floor of the Senate or armed skirmishes between political enemies. Every day we can and do work with people of different ideological bents to make our town, our state and our country better.

Neither is this election a referendum on the state of our country or the policies of our president. Barack Obama isn’t on the ballot. Healthcare reform is not on the ballot. Tax cuts are not on the ballot. This election isn’t a chance to send a message of support or dissatisfaction with the policies of the last two years. It is a chance to select the women and men best able to lead our state and nation. The quality of candidates’ ideas and plans – or lack thereof – should be our criteria.  

It’s tough to be excited about voting. There is neither the sense of history in the making, nor the hope of post-partisan unity that animated us in 2008. Pundits and polls were calling the elections a year ago. The flood of negative advertising released by both sides has served only do dispirit and demoralize the rest of us.  

Very few of us fit cleanly in either narrative of these elections. We may not feel strongly enough to vote that divides us into red or blue, liberal or conservative. But this election is not about that. It is coming together to choose the best leaders with the strongest ideas and most solid plans. It is about choosing leaders who will work toward improving the lives and livelihoods of us all rather than trying to prove just how divided our country can be.

Geoff Jara-Almonte ([email protected]) is a fourth year medical student.