Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — Nebraska’s state constitutional officers have officially certified the November 2024 general election, which includes the formal approval of five ballot measures.
The State Canvassing Board on Monday unanimously accepted the election results for all but one race — a seat on the Dawson Public Power District, which will head to an automatic recount Wednesday morning.
The Canvassing Board consists of Gov. Jim Pillen, Secretary of State Bob Evnen, Attorney General Mike Hilgers, State Treasurer Tom Briese and State Auditor Mike Foley.
Evnen, whose office oversees and administers Nebraska elections, celebrated the “exemplary work” of election officials and voters, who completed the first general election with voter ID.
Deputy Nebraska Secretary of State Wayne Bena, who oversees the state’s Elections Division, said he spent the majority of the morning on Election Day this Nov. 5 dealing with whether yard signs were too close to polling sites.
“If that’s the biggest part of my day, I know it’s going to be a good day,” Bena told the canvassers.
Ballot measure implementation
The official certification will also usher in new state laws and a new constitutional amendment within the next 10 days, upon official proclamations from Pillen:
- Initiative Measure 434 — An amendment to the Nebraska Constitution to officially prohibit most abortions after the first trimester (about 12 weeks gestational age) with exceptions for medical emergency, sexual assault or incest.
- Referendum Measure 435 — The repeal of Legislative Bill 1402, a state law passed this spring to appropriate $10 million for “education scholarships” to private schools. Briese said roughly $50,000 in administrative costs and $30,000 in scholarship funds had not been distributed and will return to the state budget after June 30, 2025.
- Initiative Measure 437 — A new state law to allow Nebraskans to legally possess up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis, so long as they have a written recommendation from their health care practitioner (valid for two years, or another specified time frame).
- Initiative Measure 438 — A new state law to regulate medical cannabis with a new Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, which must establish criteria to license “registered cannabis establishments” by July 1, 2025, and begin granting registrations by Oct. 1, 2025. Commission members will be the three members of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. The governor will have the option of appointing two more members.
One ballot measure has a delayed implementation date of Oct. 1, 2025:
- Initiative Measure 436 — A new state law to offer a minimum level of paid sick leave for workers, up to 40 hours for small businesses and 56 hours in businesses with 20 or more weekly employees.
Initiative Measure 439, an abortion-rights constitutional amendment regarding a “right to abortion” until fetal viability, failed to pass.
‘A great debt of gratitude’
Bena said that despite headwinds going into the election, county election officials rose above. He expressed “a great debt of gratitude” for their work validating the most ballot measure petition signatures in state history, getting all ballots out on time and embracing voter ID education.
In total, 345 ballots were rejected due to voter ID issues, and 654 early voting ballots were rejected because voters did not sign the back of the envelope.
Bena said both issues had little impact on any races.
After each general election, state elections officials manually hand count ballots in 10% of precincts statewide. The precincts are chosen at random with at least one precinct in every county for three races: one federal, one state, and one local race as chosen by the county.
Of 133 precincts audited, in a total of 69,764 ballots (about 7.2% of total ballots cast this fall), there were a total of seven discrepancies, which Bena said were because of “hesitation marks” where voters didn’t fully shade in the oval next to a candidate’s name or because some ballots might have been counted twice.
“What this does show, and as it has shown in our audits after every election, our machines are counting these votes accurately, and our votes are secure,” Bena said.
Three reported problems
Three problems were reported during this election cycle, two of which had no impact on the ultimate outcomes.
In Gage County, the race for the Lower Big Blue Natural Resources District Subdistrict 1 seat did not appear on 32 of the 41 ballot styles in the county, meaning about 2,396 voters didn’t get to vote in the contest. Duane Parde of Pickrell ran unopposed for reelection.
In Johnson County, the race for the State Board of Education District 2 seat between Maggie Douglas and Linda Vermooten, both of Bellevue, was left off of one ballot style in one precinct. That affected about 54 voters. Douglas was elected by a margin of 5,534 votes over Vermooten.
In Dawson County, the race for the Dawson Public Power District, Dawson Subdivision, was mistakenly printed as “Vote for ONE,” instead of “Vote for TWO.”
Election officials identified the mistake Oct. 7 and worked with the state Elections Division to prepare new ballots the next day. Corrected ballots were mailed to the 240 voters who had already received early ballots on Oct. 11.
All four candidates in the race were notified, and news releases were sent to local newspapers, Bena said.
Of the 240 voters, all but one returned their ballot — 178 voters either sent in the corrected ballot or indicated they didn’t need to change their vote.
Bena said that left 61 ballots. The difference between the second and third-place finishers was 20 votes. That is the race headed to an automatic recount.
“This error had the potential of affecting the outcome,” Bena said.
The recount will occur at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the affected counties: Buffalo, Custer, Dawson, Frontier, Gosper and Phelps. The Canvassing Board will meet next Tuesday to finalize the result. Bena said all candidates can observe the process in each of the six counties.
“The losing candidate does have the ability to file an election contest, if they do so choose,” Bena told the Canvassing Board, “but I will point out that the clerk did everything that they were supposed to do if an error like this occurred to be able to correct the wrong and give the voters the opportunity to vote on a corrected ballot.”