Wednesday after the election seems to come very suddenly. Neighborhood lawn signs start coming down quickly. Winners begin planning. Those defeated wonder what went wrong — and all candidates give thanks to those who supported them.

All that work that led to Tuesday’s vote — as well as early voting — and now we turn the page. It has been an engaging election season — more so than usual, it seemed to us. There were lots of candidates, plenty of issues and, thankfully, not much nastiness.

We congratulate the winners, such as Jay Rand for North Elba supervisor, Lindy Ellis for Franklin County District 7 legislator, Roy Holzer for Wilmington supervisor, Davina Minemiller for St. Armand supervisor and many others. We console those who fell short and thank them for volunteering to help the common good.

The voters have chosen their preferences as local leaders for the next few years. Now we know, and now we can look to the future.