By the time Election Day rolled around, the residents of North Carolina were fed up. Fed up with the negative campaigning that seemed to be everywhere — TV, radio, online and in the mail. In fact, with the many, many fliers that landed in mailboxes on a daily basis, Beaufort County residents could have conceivably paved the roadways from here to Raleigh, or perhaps even Washington, D.C.

By Nov. 4, in fact, most people had ceased to even look at the fliers — why should they bother? It was just one more candidate bashing another, and not a thing conveyed that voters hadn’t already read or hadn’t already made up their minds about.

What a waste.

It’s a waste of paper. But it’s really a waste of money.

In North Carolina, $111 million was spent on the North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race alone. It’s an astounding figure. With 2.9 million voters in the state, that’s an investment of $38.28 per voter. However, those out of state PACS, which have no business meddling in the North Carolina electoral process, actually spent over $87 per voter, as only 44 percent of North Carolina’s voters bothered to vote this election.

But $111 million — think about what could fund. It could fund the hiring of more teachers to reduce class sizes in second, third, fourth and fifth grades for all public schools in North Carolina — or, perhaps, help North Carolina claw its way up in the standings on the list of teacher salaries by state.

$111 million could pay the operating costs of two existing state homes for veterans and open another two. It could pay Food Bank of the Albemarle’s operating costs 100 times over. $111 million could give every child in the state an equal opportunity to play sports in rec leagues.

$111 million could pay for a lot. Instead, it paid for nothing but discontent for some, indifference for others.

It could be campaign finance reform should take a different turn. Perhaps any PAC should, indeed, be able to dump fortunes into campaigns, win or lose. But for every $1 that’s spent slinging mud and wallowing in negativity, another should go straight into the accounts of those doing good out there: food banks, veterans services, education and more.

$111 million — oh, the good that could have been done.