Many are talking as I write this Wednesday morning about the massive changes statewide in this primary election, such as what happens to the Freedom Caucus after losing so many seats — statewide and in Park County — and the makeup of the Park County GOP as Tuesday’s election also saw a big swing toward the moderate end in precinct elections.

But one of my biggest takeaways from helping to cover the election last night alongside our stellar political reporter CJ Baker was in just how smoothly it went even as it was one of the largest primary elections on record.

Park County First Deputy Clerk Hans Odde, who won the primary to be the next county clerk to succeed Colleen Renner, credited the e-poll books and the effective pollworkers and office employees for a smooth process.

He said Tuesday night his idea for e-poll books, which allow pollworkers to quickly verify voters among other services, came out of the massive lines seen two years at the fairgrounds polling location.

This year, all of the anecdotal evidence I’ve heard is that there were no long lines, that even with a good turnout, voters moved through quickly. That’s a win for both election security and the ease of voting. It also amounted to an earlier than usual evening for those covering the election, which was much appreciated.

And, as stated earlier, this was still a well attended election, with the second most votes cast of any primary election in Park County (only the 2022 race with Reps. Harriet Hageman and Liz Cheney drew more).

That is great to see, and it gives a good account of Park County residents being engaged in the process, even if it was hard to avoid being engaged at times what with all the political texts, calls and mailers.

Now, even more importantly, we can rejoice in a sharp reduction in political calls, texts and mailers. That may just be the biggest win in my book.