I think we’re all reeling from last night in our own various ways, and many of us are glad Election Season is over and we can begin prepping for the holidays. But I wanted to share some things we at CivicLex last night and over the last few months.

Our Executive Director, Richard Young, hosted the staff at his home for an Election Night party. He cooked a mean beef roast with a slew of sides, and we’re really thankful to him for hosting us until 1-freaking-AM. It was also a send-off party for Gillian Stawiszynski, who worked hard covering all the big news in City Hall with us for the last year. She will be joining the Jessamine Journal as a reporter, and I am incredibly excited for a rural paper to get a truly stellar journalist in Gillian.

As we watched results pour in, we worked on having information about Lexington’s new Council (and I mean *new* — 40% of next year’s Council will be brand new office holders, including the next Vice Mayor Dan Wu) ready to go out to our audience by 8am this morning. Want to learn about the new faces in City Hall? Here you go: https://lnkd.in/gUg67pJJ

Lastly, I have an important stat to share. We worked really hard this year building LexVote, an online informational election guide to help residents learn about *all* of Lexington’s local candidates, from Mayor to Council to Family Court Judge to Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor! We heard a lot of people talk about how useful it was. But in looking at the numbers, we learned that over 20,000 people visited the site this year! And not only did 20,000 people visit the site, but they looked at many of the races when they came. With such high turnout last night and such high traffic, I’m hopeful that this was one of the most informed electorates in Lexington’s recent history.

Election Season has been so tiring. We as a staff have spent countless hours in the evenings, on the weekends, and — after last night — well into the wee morning hours, making sure Lexingtonians were well prepared to make their voices heard. There’s always new ground to cover, but I think we did a dang fine job this year.

Thanks so much to all of our supporters, our followers, our newsletter readers, and our event attendees for making this such a successful Election Season for CivicLex. We’re a strong staff with a lot of gumption, but we don’t work in a silo. We put out as much as Lexington gives to us, and I’m really proud to say they give us a lot.

(Now we just have to get through fundraising season! Speaking of which… what if you chipped in a few dollars for Newsmatch, where your donation will be doubled through November?? 👀😉 https://lnkd.in/ghZbP9Z4)