Yesterday, I witnessed something rare in the world, in that it only happens once every four years and can only be seen in one place. I was in the House Chamber as the Vice President, in his role as President of the Senate, presided over the counting of the Electoral College ballots for the election of the President of the United States.

House Pages brought large wooden boxes to the well of the House, and one by one, an envelope from each state was taken out of these boxes. Inside each of these envelopes were certificates indicating the Electoral College vote of each state. The number of ballots cast for each candidate in each state was read, and then tallied. After the votes were tallied, the Vice President declared, "This announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2009, and shall be entered, together with the list of the votes, on the Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives." At that moment, Barack Obama officially became the President-Elect of the United States of America.

As I sat watching the opening of those envelopes, I couldn’t help but think "what a great country we live in". Those envelopes did not merely hold pieces of paper. They held the promise of democracy and representative government. Inside each of those envelopes was enclosed the will of the people of the state from which they came. The Vice President presided over a session of Congress for the sole purpose of replacing himself in office, and with someone from an opposing political party. There were no arguments, no debate or struggle; simply the world’s oldest democracy doing what it has always done – upholding the Constitution and the rule of law.

This beginning of the peaceful transfer of power was truly a sight to behold. And it reminded me that America is indeed a blessed nation.