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Once again, Georgia found itself in the national spotlight on Tuesday night, as people from around the country watched vote totals in the highly contested U.S. Senate races.

Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff wore victorious, which shows that “ruby red Georgia,” as some political pundits have called it, might have officially turned purple. Future elections will either prove that correct or this is a one-time scenario.

But regardless of whether you’re a republican, democrat or independent, we can all applaud everyone involved in the local portion of the election. The results were in quickly.

At the time of this writing, there are still counties with outstanding votes remaining in Georgia. Some are large, like Fulton and Dekalb County, and others are smaller, like Troup.

But Troup County’s votes were in Tuesday night by around 10 p.m.

Election Supervisor Andrew Harper, the election board and all the volunteers involved in the process should be applauded for their work.

If the last few months have shown us anything, it’s that election officials truly work in a thankless job. Many of the people who help are senior citizens, who we see every election season bringing ballots up to the Troup County Government Center.

Thankfully, we have people that uphold the integrity of our elections and volunteer their time. 

Eyeballs watch their every move, waiting for anything to go wrong so that they can point to their side and scream shenanigans if their side loses. (But, obviously, not if their side wins.)

As our elections nationally get more divided, every election official goes under more scrutiny.

We appreciate our local officials, who were quick and efficient on Tuesday night.