Editorial: Cliff notes from Election Day

• Market drop puts leaders on notice.
• In exit polls Tuesday, just 13% of voters said abortion should be illegal in all cases.
• Election officials' excuses insult voters who took the time.

The people have spoken. Now it's the markets' turn.

Tuesday's election left the new government looking a lot like the old government, with President Obama in the White House, Democrats in control of the Senate and Republicans running the House. So who can blame investors for being skeptical that the same gridlocked crowd will do any better this time around?

They sent the stock market into a 313-point swoon Wednesday, which ought to put Washington on notice that constituents will be financially clobbered if leaders can't come together on pressing matters.

Those include the year-end "fiscal cliff" of big tax hikes and abrupt spending cuts that could drive the nation back into recession, the likelihood of more brinksmanship over raising the federal debt ceiling, and the prospect of continued runaway deficits.

For Obama, the message from the markets: Restart negotiations with lawmakers on a grand bargain to bring long-term deficits under control. Massage egos. Twist arms. Go back out on the road to sell a plan to the American people. You might think that you're above this nitty-gritty kind of politics. But someone has to lead.

For congressional Democrats, the message: Be willing to curb benefit programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that are the biggest drivers of long-term deficits. For congressional Republicans: Get over you rigid adherence to anti-tax doctrine.

One hopeful sign is that both Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are sounding the right notes about finding common ground and pursuing tax reform that raises new revenue.

Voters may see a status quo election. Washington would be wise to see it the markets' way, as a sweeping mandate for change.

Gay rights votes historic

Supporters of gay rights made history on Election Day. Maryland and Maine became the first states to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote, and Minnesota turned back a ballot measure to ban it.

The results ended one of the longest losing streaks in politics, during which voters in 30 states had banned gay marriage and, in some cases, civil unions as well.

Polls show dramatic increases in support for gay marriage over the past decade, but Tuesday's breakthroughs don't end the debate or heal the divide. Most Democrats, liberals and young people favor same-sex marriage. Most Republicans, conservatives, evangelicals and black Protestants are opposed.

Tuesday's votes affirmed the most important principle, equal treatment under the law. There might be other paths to the same end — civil unions or getting government out of the marriage business — but simply outlawing the practice won't work.

Hold the high on pot

Pot smokers in Colorado and Washington are celebrating passage of ballot measures that make recreational use of marijuana there legal, and tokerssmokers elsewhere are already planning "pot-cations."

But let's take a deep breath here. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law. Federal agents can still bust users, sellers and growers. Federal prosecutors can still bring them to trial and send them to prison. Talk about a buzz kill.

The open question is what the Obama administration, which opposed the ballot measures, will do now. As a practical matter, federal officials defer to state and local authorities to make the vast majority of busts. On Wednesday, the Justice Department said only that it's reviewing the initiatives.

Justice should stand firm. Any benefits from legalization for non-medicinal purposes are outweighed by risks that more kids will use pot, and more people will drive stoned.

Extremism on abortion, rape

Tuesday's election brought little cheer to opponents of abortion.

Candidates who expressed extreme views on the issue cost Republicans two Senate races. Richard Mourdock of Indiana and Todd Akin of Missouri alienated voters by arguing, clumsily, that abortion should be banned even in cases of rape.

Obviously, the entire movement is not as extreme. But the candidates' fumbles underscore a long-standing conundrum: If you believe life begins at conception and must be protected, how is the way the life began relevant? The rape exception exists only because the alternative is politically unpalatable.

How unpalatable? In exit polls Tuesday, just 13% of voters said abortion should be illegal in all cases
. In 1975, two years after Roe v. Wade, Gallup put the number at 22%.

The fight will go on, but the argument isn't moving the meter much. Abortion will remain legal.

Better to make it unnecessary.

Ineptitude caused long lines

No one should have to wait for hours to vote, but that's what happened to too many voters in too many places on Tuesday.

A precinct in Virginia's Prince William County had lines four-and-a-half hours long at one point. Huge lines were also reported in Florida, New York, Texas and Wisconsin, among other places.

"By the way, we have to fix that," President Obama said in his victory speech. Yes, we do.

Early voting, preferably conducted during the two weeks between the final presidential debate and Election Day, is an increasingly popular way to ease the Tuesday crush at the polls. But it's not meant to relieve elections officials of their basic responsibilities.

Those officials cited plenty of scapegoats for Tuesday's queues: A shortage of electronic voter rolls for checking voters' names. Too few voting machines. Unexpectedly high turnout.

Really? These excuses are an insult to citizens who take the time to vote, only to encounter official indifference and ineptitude. Similar problems were exposed by the Florida voting fiasco of 2000, yet there they were again Tuesday, with the same pitiful excuses.

It's bad enough when incompetence makes voting difficult; worse is when officials deliberately set out to do that. In the battleground state of Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott reacted to the Democratic edge in early voting in 2008 by cutting early voting days from 14 to eight. Predictably, early voting lines backed up for as long as seven hours this year.

Whether created on purpose or by accident, long lines that impede a citizen's right to vote are unacceptable.

Voters who spent most of a workday to cast their ballots deserve high praise for doing the jobs democracy demands of them. The same can't be said for the elections officials who kept them waiting in line.