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The course of the presidential election could soon swing from vote-counting to courts. Here, we run down how that could play out in the days ahead and why.聽

The Republican Party has long been cast in the mold of Ronald Reagan. But President Donald Trump鈥檚 strong showing this election looks likely to pivot the party toward his image.

With the United States battling a spike in coronavirus cases, Vermont offers a different picture. A sense of civic responsibility has helped the state distinguish itself.

Europe hoped the U.S. election would reaffirm its place in the 鈥渄emocratic family of nations.鈥澛營nstead, it is forcing leaders to wrestle with the dramatic changes afoot 鈥� no matter who wins.聽 聽 聽聽

First-time voters on both political sides drove historic participation in this election. So we set out to find them and offer this postcard from the ballot box.聽 聽

Many blues pioneers were Black women, but the rise of the electric guitar pushed men to the fore. Now young female artists are joining in and reinvigorating the art form.聽

It is customary to the point of clich茅 for U.S. politicians to follow rough-and-tumble campaigns with calls for unity and consensus. The alchemy of the ballot box is supposed to turn Republicans and Democrats back into Americans. Magnanimous in victory. Decorous in defeat.

That norm felt a little frayed this week. Yes, victory speeches had the usual grace notes. 鈥淐learly, people are saying it鈥檚 time to turn the page,鈥� said Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor of Colorado, after winning a seat in the Senate. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to start solving problems and helping people.鈥�

Such calls aside, an already divided country appears to be even more so. A Pew Research Center poll just prior to the election found that only 4% of registered voters in states with a Senate contest said they would be open to voting for a presidential candidate from one party and a Senate candidate from another. Almost 80% said they would vote for candidates from the same party all the way down the ballot.

Those findings held. The 鈥渂lue wave鈥� 鈥� an overwhelming gain for Democrats 鈥� did not come. Nor did President Donald Trump鈥檚 base crack. Neither side emerged with a clear mandate or grew its majority.

Does parity mean paralysis? America鈥檚 founders did not think so. 鈥淐an they not harmonize in society unless they have everything in their own hands?鈥� asked Thomas Jefferson, speaking of political blocs. The answer, as is often the case in American politics, becomes more apparent beyond Washington, where government gets closer to the people.

In Utah, Republican Gov.-elect Spencer Cox and his opponent, Democratic House Minority Leader Brian King, emerged from the election voicing hope for cooperation. 鈥淚 feel strong about including, you know, Democrats and Libertarians and others so we can have those robust discussions and policy inputs,鈥� Mr. Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune.

In a response, Mr. King said, 鈥淚鈥檇 love to see us lead out in Utah in a way that really crosses the ideological and the policy spectrum and really incorporates the best ideas regardless of where they come from.鈥�

The unusual political career of Jerry Brown in California underscored the value of finding a broader governing perspective. During his first two-term stint as governor starting in 1975, Mr. Brown pursued a progressive agenda that was ahead of its time even for California. He left office eight years later highly unpopular. In 2011 he returned to Sacramento. By the time he finished another two terms, he had become perhaps the most successful governor of a state notoriously difficult to govern.

Most political careers follow a linear upward path from local to higher state and national offices. Between his governorships, Mr. Brown went to Oakland as mayor. 鈥淗e himself said at one point when he was mayor of Oakland that he was finally understanding that the regulations that he had implemented as governor were hamstringing localities,鈥� Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a longtime California political analyst, told The Atlantic. 鈥淗e finally was far [enough] outside the bubble of state politics and the governorship to look at what he was doing.鈥�

That lesson applies now. 鈥淚f we鈥檝e divided ourselves in half, which statistically we sort of have, and tomorrow we stay in these camps, as a country, we鈥檙e only half of ourselves and we are missing the richness of each other,鈥� John Sarrouf, a Boston-based conflict resolution consultant, told the Deseret News.

As America emerges from a taut election in a year shaped by a pandemic and unrest over racial injustice, division is not its only choice. Embracing the different perspectives they have to offer each other, Americans can restore a founding ideal of their democracy: out of many, one.