It’s finally over.

All but the shouting, vote-counting, finger-pointing, legal wrangling, possible rioting and attempted overthrowing — once more — of our 248-year-old democratic republic.

But that’s all in the future.

Maybe.

For now, let’s celebrate the end of the most vexing, mean-spirited and household-dividing presidential election in modern times, as it heaves itself across the finish line and crumples in a lousy heap.

Columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria look back on the rancorous path to this day and offer some thoughts on what lies ahead.

Barabak: There are very few things I can say with certainty. But I can say without doubt that most people — save members of Masochists Anonymous — are glad this campaign is mercifully done with. No?

Chabria: I feel like it’s the morning after a Vegas wedding and we’ve tied the knot — we’re just not sure with whom. As happy as I am that we finally made it through voting day, I feel duty-bound to squash any relief out there by being clear that we still have a long way to go before we all agree on a winner.

Votes almost certainly will be challenged — sometimes fairly and sometimes nefariously — for weeks, if not months, to come.

But here’s more good news: We are in the process of a free and fair election, upholding a democracy that has seemed tenuous at times these last few years. So that’s a plus.

Are you feeling hopeful about anything at this moment?

B Not, as you suggested, that we’ll all eventually agree on a winner.

There are still a shocking number of deluded and misguided folks out there who believe Trump won in 2020.

Including the denier-in-chief, who sits atop the GOP ticket.

That said, I love Election Day.

After all the speeches and mail pieces, all the TV ads, the debates, town halls, prime-time interviews, impromptu statements and hasty clarifications, it’s finally voters’ turn to have their say. Hokey as it sounds, we’re reminded on this one day that the power in our political system ultimately rests with the people and the sentiments they express at the ballot box.

I make no predictions; I’m smart enough to know what I don’t know, which is a whole lot. And I’m not in the habit of endorsing candidates.

But I’ve made it pretty clear in columns over the past several years that I think our president should be someone who doesn’t try to overturn a legitimate election. ... If I’m hopeful about anything, it’s that a majority of Americans will feel that things in this country have worked, if far from perfectly, then well enough since its founding that perhaps maybe we shouldn’t chuck our values and grounding principles just because eggs and gas cost more than they did when the pandemic-ravaged economy was on its back four years ago.

Allow me to trot out a well-worn phrase that we hear just about every election, how this one is the most important of our lifetime. In this instance, it’s true.

C I’m with you on all that. I love Election Day, too. Because, yes, it does come down to the people and, despite the overt attempts by Donald Trump to subvert that, our will has held.

Where I differ from you is that I’m happy to loudly and proudly proclaim that I am 100% pro-Harris. I actually don’t have a party preference — that might surprise some.

I bring it up because if Harris doesn’t win, people need to continue this fight to push back against autocracy, even with a dictatorial-minded president in the White House. Trump is calling this election the final battle, but it’s not.

B Well-stated. Now if I can, I’d like to acknowledge and briefly give praise to our current president — remember that guy? — Joe Biden.

He essentially vowed to be a one-term president, a “bridge” to a new “generation of leaders,” as he put it while campaigning in 2020. Then he yanked up that bridge up and decided, at age 81, to seek another term.

Things were going fair to middling with his candidacy until Biden’s catastrophic, catatonic debate performance in June, which caused a major Democratic freak-out and resulted in his grudging departure from the ticket and endorsement of Harris.

Supposedly, Biden still thinks he would have beaten Trump, making him one of the few people on the planet to harbor that misconception.

But give credit where due. Biden spent decades of his life chasing and pining after the presidency, and when he finally realized his dream, he proved quite adept at the job.

Still, he walked away — albeit only after getting a healthy shove. It’s rare for someone to surrender power willingly the way Biden did. If Harris wins, his selfless act will be a laudable part of the president’s legacy. If she loses, out come the knives and the criticism that Biden selfishly overstayed his time in office and denied his party the chance for a competitive primary.

C Biden definitely earned a place in the history books — in a good way — for having the courage and commitment to the good of the country to step down.

I’ll also give a shout-out — and maybe one of those oh-so-iffy predictions — to the women of America. From early voting, we know that female voters are turning out in huge numbers. Some of that may be the Dobbs Supreme Court decision that cuts women’s reproductive rights, but I think it goes beyond that.

B Wouldn’t that be poetic. In the end, it would turn out that you can’t grab ’em by the … well, you know, and get away with it.

One last thing. I said that I make no predictions. I learned my lesson in 2016, when it turned out everything I thought I knew about politics was wrong.

But I will venture this: For the next four years, until the next presidential campaign, and forever after, there will be no end of people explaining how the outcome was clear as the dawning daylight all along. Don’t buy it.

Mark Z. Barabak is a political columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Anita Chabria is a California columnist for the Los Angeles Times, based in Sacramento.