The 2016 election has ended. Hallelujah.

For the record, I’m writing this on Tuesday afternoon, so I don’t know who won yet.

But I don’t need to know the election results to say what I’m about to say.

Because regardless of who won, my message is this: it’s time to get to work.

Every election cycle, people become fired up about politics for about ten months, and then after the winner takes office, the excitement slowly dissipates.

As a result, the average American’s political life is deeply divided.

We only discuss our politics when we are arguing over who to vote for.

Then the election season rolls around again and Americans are frustrated at how little has changed.

Take for example the way parties conduct primaries.

Unfair primary elections were a controversial issue for both Republicans and Democrats this year.

But what many people did not realize in this discussion, is that primaries have been stirring controversy for years.

Political parties are semi-private organizations that make decisions for the public, which has caused trouble in the past.

Why haven’t primaries changed then?

Because people are only outraged immediately after the primaries.

No politician is going to risk shaking up party politics during election seasons, and when they actually might consider passing legislation to change the system, the constituency has lost interest.

So if you are mad about Bernie Sanders or whoever ran for the GOP ticket losing, now is the time when you have to start putting pressure on your representatives to reform the system.

Speaking of voting, let’s talk about rigged elections.

For a country that prides itself on its democracy, we seem to run into major issues every year with voting.

This year alone, one major party candidate has discussed at length the possibility of rigged elections.

Others have expressed concerns over increased voter restrictions and possible voter discrimination.

These fears are not new, and are in fact as old as American democracy itself.

The same principle applies to the general election as the primary elections.

Major reform is not going to happen while politicians are campaigning.

We need to stay as passionate about voter reform in the off years and as we have been during this election.

You also need to put pressure on your representatives to do their job, even if they are not immediately up for reelection.

The Senate has been blocking Obama’s Supreme Court nomination for the entire election cycle, saying that the next president should be the one to decide.

Now a group of senators is threatening to block the nominations of the next president should that president belong to the opposite party. This is unacceptable.

The Supreme Court performs a vital function for our country and we cannot let partisan divisions hinder it.

We must express to our representatives that we are still watching their actions even after the election and we want them to do their job.

This brings us to the larger issue of moving on from this divisive election.

America has focused for so long on Republicans vs Democrats that we have forgotten that Republicans and Democrats must work together to run our country.

We are in desperate need of closure and healing after all that has happened in 2016, and we can unite once again over our shared concern for this country.

We cannot continue in governmental stalemate for the next four years.

As a country, we have much we need to address and accomplish, so we need to stop fighting each other and start working with each other.

Elections are always important moments in our history, but what will matter the most is the work our lawmakers and our citizens do in the meantime.

That is what makes America great, that despite our differences, we continue to work together to run this country and create a better future.

If we lose interest or hope now, then we will find ourselves just as frustrated when the next election rolls around.