They are still counting the ballots in Georgia – it is a recount – by hand. Five million pieces of paper are being counted, one at a time. The president's supporters and the two Republican senators say something is wrong with the count that seems to favor the Democrat. They want the Secretary of State, the guy in charge of state elections, to resign. He said no and claimed he is following the law.

Like the rest of this election season, few things are what they seem. It is more complicated when you find out the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, is not a Democrat or a Socialist or whatever. He is a Republican, just like the president and the two Senators who want his head. If you spend any time on social media, or even Maine's Channel 13, you will find many unique theories explaining why the president lost. Of course, most counts say he did win some 70 million votes, but Vice President Joe Biden won 74 million and change.

In past elections, after the votes were counted, the loser called the winner and congratulated him. Even in 2000, when just some 500 votes separated Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, an election decided by the U.S. Supreme Court after a contentious recount of Florida ballots, Gore called Bush and offered his best wishes. This time, so far at least, no one is congratulating the other side.

Meanwhile, Trump supporters are, as usual, bashing the press. They say the press does not get to choose who won the election. The voters do. They are right. The voters cast ballots in thousands of precincts in the 50 states and territories. Our soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force members also get to vote. Note, In 1967, I remember filling out a ballot while sitting on a wall made of sandbags. I sealed the ballot in an envelope, my commanding officer verified my signature, and we put it in the mail.

The captain asked me who I voted for, and I answered it was none of his business. He smiled at me and said: "You are right."

Voters get to vote. Then local and state workers, most of them volunteers who serve without pay, or very little pay at best, count the votes. They serve despite the threat of a pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of victims.

In most states, representatives of both parties watch this process. Sometimes, there are disputes that may end up in court. When they count the votes, the tally is reported to state election officials who announce the results. The press and political parties add up these numbers and translate them to the numbers of electors allocated to each state. When a candidate has earned 270 electoral votes, the press announces that result. That is how they call who the winner is.

But that is not the official result. There is a complex legal process that must be followed. State officials still certify the results and choose electors equal to the number of senators and representatives. In Maine, that is four. On Dec. 14, these electors meet and send their choices to Washington by Dec. 23.

Congress meets in a joint session on Jan. 6 and counts the electors' votes. When the congressional counters decide a candidate has received 270 electoral votes, they tell the vice president, announcing the winner. That is when it is officially over. We swear in a new president on Jan. 20.

Why is this election being contested so fiercely? I know one of the candidates is conventional and the other is decidedly unconventional. We are in the middle of a pandemic that answers to neither side.

But I wonder somehow if it has to do with age. It is no secret that the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, are elderly men. Trump is 74, and Biden will be 78 on Nov. 20. Many Republican and Democrat leaders and their supporters, in and out of politics, are reaching their sell-by date, too. Are we watching a generational change as the old guard hangs on while keeping an eye on the youngsters waiting in the wings? History tells us that the old guard always hates to yield power.

And there is another lesson to be learned from history. Race is always a factor in American politics.