Things are getting back to normal at the Beaufort County Board of Elections … finally.

In an elections season that saw elections-related lawsuits filed one after another, court rulings regarding voter ID laws, voter challenges and elections protests, the board’s three members — Chairman Jay McRoy, John Tate and Tom Payne — and the board’s staff and elections officials kept one thing in mind as they dealt with these issues and more, including a disruption during early voting that resulted in a Beaufort County man being charged with interfering with an elections official and trespassing. First and foremost, they wanted to make sure voters’ rights were protected, elections law was followed and that every legally cast ballot was counted.

The board members, two Republicans and one Democrat, set party politics aside when deliberating elections-related issues. They made sure they did what was best for voters, not their parties. That’s admirable and commendable.

Kellie Harris Hopkins, Anita Bullock Branch and Scott Sheppard — elections director, deputy elections director and elections specialist, respectively — worked into the late night hours and on weekends to make sure voters’ votes would matter, that the voting process would be as convenient as possible and that each voter would be treated equally and fairly under the law.

These elections officials were serious about protecting voters.

“I don’t think we need to take this lightly, and I’d rather take a step back and make sure we do it properly because we’re talking about someone’s right to vote,” Hopkins told the county board after the first voter challenges were made in early October. “If we remove them, even though this is stemming from a municipal election, we’re talking about removing them prior to a presidential election where they could very well be valid voters within Beaufort County and not just the municipality.”

Their dedication did not go completely unnoticed. Beaufort County Board of Commissioners candidates Derik Davis and Gary Brinn, involved in a recount earlier this week, paid homage to the board and its staff for their professionalism during this elections cycle. That’s exactly what the board and its staff did: be professionals.

By pairing their professionalism with a true concern about voters, they truly define what it means to be a public servant.