On key issues, the majority of voters in Charles County were in step with the majority of voters in the rest of Maryland.

Barack Obama won 65 percent of the vote in Charles County. In the state, President Obama won 61 percent of the vote on his way to a nationwide re-election victory.

Voters here supported the Dream Act, which will allow some young, undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition to attend Maryland colleges, with 60 percent voting for it. Question 4 won easily statewide with 58 percent of the vote.

Charles also voted for Question 7, which will allow a casino in National Harbor, with 61 percent voting for the measure. Statewide, it carried with 52 percent of the vote.

The county also followed the statewide trend by voting for the congressional redistricting maps with 60 percent noting approval. Statewide Question 5 saw 64 percent voting for the maps.

The only measure that failed to pass in Charles was Question 6, which will make same-sex marriages legal in Maryland. Fifty-five percent of the county’s voters were against the question, but statewide, 52 percent of the voters approved marriage equality. That made Maryland the first state in the union to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box.

In the U.S. Senate race, Charles picked incumbent Ben Cardin (D) in a three-person statewide race with 58 percent of the vote.

And there was Rep. Steny Hoyer (D), who cruised to an easy re-election victory with 69 percent of the vote in the 5th District. In Charles, Hoyer also took 69 percent against Del. Anthony O’Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary’s).

So for all the talk of anger and dissatisfaction with government, this election brings little change in the cast of characters for the county, in Congress and in the White House. This does not mean it was a vote for the status quo. What people want is for the government to get off the dime and start addressing problems that have been allowed to grow and fester because of gridlock in Washington.

Most urgent among these problems is sequestration, the “fiscal cliff’’ looming as tax cuts expire and deep across-the-board cuts in federal spending take effect in January unless Congress acts.

Sequestration is a real and serious threat to the economy of our region, which is fueled by federal defense spending. Now that the election is over, Americans are depending on the same people who led us to the cliff to keep from pushing the country over the edge.

That is something that all of the nation should agree upon. The election finally is over. It is time for those who were elected to get to work.