Another election has come and gone, and while it's always exciting to be a journalist during a campaign season, I can tell you that most of us are relieved to be moving on to other matters.

And I'm sure most readers are pleased to get a break from reading election coverage.

But please indulge me with one more item on election season - I'd like to tell you about the people in our newsroom who made our coverage so strong this year.

It culminated with our edition on Wednesday, which featured thorough, well-written coverage of key local races, as well as captivating photography. And our staff of page designer/copy editors did great work putting it all together and making it look good. They also kept our Web site updated with results as they came in on Tuesday night.

But prior to election night, these same people worked tirelessly on our coverage of the campaigns, including a series of preview stories that weren't always easy to put together because candidates' time is often limited, especially for a print publication.

We also brought 15 candidates into our office over a three-week period for interviews with our three-person editorial board, which was a tremendous scheduling accomplishment. And don't get me started on the heavy volume of reader letters that had to be confirmed and put into our system.

And though not every person on our staff worked directly on election coverage, I can honestly say that each person contributed to the overall success of the newspaper.

While the election efforts were gobbling up so much of our news team's time, the men and women who work on our Lake Life and Sports sections didn't miss a beat - often with little or no help from me. Both sections offered great content throughout October and the first part of November, including amazing coverage of the Auburn High School football team's great playoff run and some novel approaches to the Halloween season that seems to grow more popular every year.

I probably should have used this space already to tell you how proud I am of this team each day, but I've hesitated because by no means do I want to convey the sense that we're not always looking for ways to improve this newspaper. From time to time, though, I guess it doesn't hurt to let you know how lucky I am.

So this is my overdue public thanks to Jean Bennett, Laura Boyce, Chris Colleluori, Marlene Cuykendall, Ryan Day, Mike Dowd, Amaris Elliott-Engel, Olivia Goldberg, Ashley Hanry, Angela Kershner, Kristin Kowaleski-Wolford, Kristina Martino, Jennifer Meyers, Beth Noyes, Linda Ober, Jason Rearick, Chris Sciria, Linda Simmons, Al Speck, Jessica Soule and David Wilcox.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's column runs Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net