Aaron Sanderford and Cindy Gonzalez
LINCOLN — Attention Nebraska voters: Those of you who haven’t voted yet have spent months being bombarded by ads and text messages, campaign mailers and news coverage. You’re ready to vote.
But just a reminder before you head to the polls: Take along a photo ID.
The state’s voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2022 requiring a picture ID to vote, and the Legislature in 2023 specified what types of identification would be accepted.
Primary election voters have already done the ID drill, but this is the first statewide general election since the changes. If you forget an ID, you’ll have to go home to get it and return, or you’ll have to vote provisionally, taking an ID to your county election office after Election Day.
Info for early voters
If you’re planning on voting early in person on Monday, you’ll need to present a state-approved ID at your county election office.
Monday is the last day to vote in person at a county clerk’s office or county election office. But voters can still return early ballots to a county drop box until 8 p.m. Central Tuesday.
By now, it is too late to put a ballot in the mail. Mailed ballots have to be received by counties before the close of in-person voting at 8 p.m. Central Tuesday.
Check your early vote
Early voters who want to confirm whether their returned ballots have bee
Early voters showing up, especially in person
If Nebraska’s most populous county is any indication, voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election could be extraordinary.
Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse last week predicted a 73% overall voter turnout in the county, including ballots cast on Election Day, but he said it could reach 75%.
Turnout for the 2020 presidential election was 74.6%, aided in part by an overwhelming amount of early voting by mail related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Typical presidential turnout in Douglas is a little lower, with the two previous statewide presidential general elections seeing turnout of 69.7% in 2016 and 68.9% in 2012.
Rain or shine, daily lines around the Douglas County Election Commission have snaked around the building, with people standing outside for an hour or longer, officials said.
“The rain didn’t deter them one bit,” Kruse said.
Some 17,455 people had voted early in person by Friday morning at the west Omaha office. Kruse projected that up to 22,000 people would vote by late Monday. In 2020, 14,282 people voted early in-person.
Kruse said that his office has had virtually no problems so far and that elections are safe and secure. He said people waiting in line have been “making new friends, visiting with each other.”
Kruse said he remains confident in the overall process. He called high interest in voting this year a sign that “our democracy is alive and well.”
“Voters should be assured that elections in Douglas County and across Nebraska are safe and secure,” Kruse said.
Info for in-person voters
People choosing to vote in person on Tuesday should plan for a little extra time, with higher-than-usual interest in the election, election officials urged.
Polling places are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mountain Time on Tuesday. You can check your polling place online at https://www.votercheck.necvr.ne.gov/voterview.
Lines are expected to be a little longer and slower during the morning and evening rush hours clustered before and after daytime work schedules. The process might take a little longer, too, since poll workers must check IDs.
Valid voter ID includes Nebraska driver’s licenses, state IDs, college IDs, military IDs, nursing home or hospital records, tribal IDs, political subdivision IDs or U.S. passports.
People can get more information from state election officials on how voter ID works in Nebraska on the secretary’s website at https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/voter-id
People with questions can call their county election office at one of the numbers listed here: https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/election-officials-contact-information.
The Secretary of State’s Office will also be staffing its phones on Election Day at 402-471-2555.
Poll watchers from both major parties will monitor polling sites statewide. Voting advocacy groups encouraged anyone facing problems to report them.
Common Cause Nebraska is hosting a toll-free voter hotline at 866-687-8683. Civic Nebraska is operating a Voter Help Line at 402-890-5291.
How results will come in
State law in Nebraska, as in many states, does not let election officials count early voting ballots until Election Day. That slows results and often leads to longer waits for results in more populous counties.
The state will start posting unofficial election results online starting at 8 p.m. Central or 7 p.m. Mountain Tuesday at electionresults.nebraska.gov.
It will update those results every five minutes until the last county election officials have called it a night, often long after midnight.
Some counties also run their own separate results sites that are updated throughout the night. Douglas and Sarpy Counties, for instance, start releasing early voting ballot counts at 8 p.m.
Election results
Check statewide election results Tuesday night and after with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office: https://electionresults.nebraska.gov
Because this is the first general election since the implementation of Voter ID in Nebraska, officials expect a higher number of provisional ballots to be cast.
But election officials were encouraged that only a handful of people ran into problems with IDs during the primary election in May, and they do not expect major problems.
The biggest jump in votes counted after Election Day typically comes on Friday. Douglas County does not open and count its early votes returned on Election Day until Friday.
That is often thousands of votes, but historically, those votes have rarely changed race outcomes, except in races with the narrowest of leads.
Results from those early ballots returned to the election commission on Election Day tend to follow the same pattern as the first wave of early balloting results on Tuesday.