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To the 88.49% of Freeborn County registered voters who voted in the election.

Though it is not the highest voter turnout Freeborn County has ever seen, residents came out in good numbers Tuesday and in the weeks ahead of the election via absentee to make their voices heard.

According to election results, 88.49% of registered voters in the county cast their ballots in the presidential election. That is more than 10% higher than the statewide turnout, which is something to be proud of.

Thanks for taking your privilege and responsibility to vote seriously.

To the students who got involved in this week’s mock election at Albert Lea High School.

Hats off to those students and staff who helped organize the mock election at Albert Lea High School this week and who gave the students a taste of the election process.

While some students may have been 18 and been able to vote in their first real election this week, the rest were not old enough yet to cast their ballot in the real election.

In the mock election at the high school, students selected their candidates for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. 1st District House of Representatives.

We hope the mock election motivated students to get involved in the future and to make it a priority to practice their right to vote when they become eligible.

To the kickoff of winter high school sports.

The Albert Lea girls’ hockey team took on Rochester Mayo Thursday night in the Roy Nystrom Arena and kicked off the winter sports season.

That means for all those fans of hockey, basketball and wrestling, now’s your time to get out there and cheer on our youth.

We wish all of our area athletes good luck in the upcoming season, and we look forward to seeing a lot of growth and success.