It was a night of firsts.

Yes, the nation overwhelmingly elected an African-American man president of the United States for the first time, in what was the highest-turnout, most expensive campaign in American history. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

Tuesday was the first election night in recent memory in which the Register newsroom wrapped things up relatively early and easily, bringing a smile to the faces of the boys in the pressroom.

Sure, in the days before the election they heard our promises of timeliness and nodded their heads, but they didn’t believe us.

Too often, last-minute election returns hit just as we’re putting the paper to bed, or a critical election remains too close to call too deep into the night.

Around deadline a sheepish editor or page designer ventures into the pressroom to deliver the unwelcome tidings, shrugs the shoulders in a what-are-you-gonna-do sort of way and that’s that. Time for everyone to take a powder for a few minutes.

Not this time.

Two factors made the difference, for the newsroom and for the voters. One may prove to be a permanent change, one was peculiar to this particular presidential election.

The one-off was the lopsided nature of the electoral vote count. Shortly after the California polls closed, while people in the newsroom continued to debate whether chunks of pineapple should ever top a pizza and what kind of boss would order such a curiosity, Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., appeared before the nation to concede the election.

It was over earlier than ever, though one colleague noted that it was really over several weeks before, when the waves of dreary headlines announced the wheels were coming off the economy and the stock market was reeling and rocking unpredictably every day.

Four years ago, we stayed in the newsroom until 3 a.m. and still didn’t have a winner.

With Ohio and the direction of the nation hanging in the balance, we wrapped things up with a question mark and listened as the Register press shifted from its low start-up hum to the whine of high gear, when papers hit the conveyer belt by the hundreds each minute.

The factor that promises to change election nights from here on out was the quick tally of the mail-in vote. As promised, Napa County Registrar of Voters John Tuteur had results at 8:01 p.m. for tens of thousands of votes, nearly half the total cast in the county.

In the old days, getting half the count would have taken at least half the night.

With the seeming success of the vote-by-mail movement, we may be in for more reliable and deeper early tallies from here on out.

Finally, despite early tracking polls that showed ham-and-pineapple pizza would be a negative direction for the newsroom, the voters literally ate it up.

Pizza traditionalists and those who like to vote at their neighborhood polling places may not like it, but pineapple pizza and voting by mail may be here to stay.