At long last, the year of elections has come to a close. By the time you’re reading this, the final ballots in the General Election will have been cast and we likely have a better picture of what the political landscape will look like for the next two years.

Here in Fountain Hills, though, the General Election was the finish line for a rather lengthy year of folks fulfilling their civic duty.

Before 2018 even got rolling, we had candidates for mayor and town council already throwing their hats into the ring. By the time New Year’s Day rolled around, we were already off to the races with the first major election of the year, a proposed property tax.

The property tax likely set a record for the most letters to the editor here at The Times, with the count topping out at more than 50 letters received in a single week on several occasions. We even had to hold over some letters to the following week due to space constraints, which isn’t exactly a common occurrence here.

By the time the property tax was defeated the town was ready to move full steam ahead into the mayoral and town council elections which, again, caused quite a bit of debate around town. But as soon as that election wrapped up, we were already gearing up for the General Election, sporting votes for state offices, a couple of propositions and, locally, a race for the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board.

Let it never be said that Fountain Hills residents don’t do their part to stay involved with politics. You folks kept the local paper plenty busy, and we genuinely believe that discourse and participation is paramount to the success of our democracy.

Sure, there were plenty of disagreements along the way, but Fountain Hills has managed to make it through a wild and extended election season in one piece. Congratulations!