Lincoln's general election is today

It’s general election day in Lincoln, where voters are deciding on four School Board seats, three City Council seats and one spot on the Airport Authority. Also on the ballot is a measure that seeks to bar landlords from denying renters based solely on their source of income. Nebraska Public Media’s Jackie Ourada spoke with reporter Brian Beach on the Capital City’s election.

Jackie Ourada: Brian, first, can you recap what Lincoln voters should know if they want to vote today but haven't cast their ballot yet?

Brian Beach: First of all, residents in Lincoln need to be properly registered to vote in order to cast a ballot in today's election. The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. if a voter wants to cast their ballot at their polling place. And early voting ballots are due back to either the Lancaster County Election Commission or one of the Commission's drop boxes before 8 p.m. Now at this point, if you haven't mailed your early voting ballots, it is too late, and you'll need to go to that county election office or one of those drop boxes. The other thing to note is that this is Lincoln's first city general election with Nebraska's voter ID law. It is the fourth overall election here in Lincoln with that ID law and Todd Wiltgen, the Lancaster County Election Commissioner, said a lot of people have started to figure it out, and the process should be going smoothly. When you're voting at the polls, make sure that you have that ID. It can be a passport, a Nebraska driver's license, something like that, but you'll need that in order to cast a ballot.

Ourada: Thanks for the reminders. Can you briefly tell us about the candidates who are running?

Beach: Yeah, so in the City Council race, you have six candidates that are vying for three seats, and this is across the entire city. So you have the incumbents. There's Tom Beckius, Sändra Washington and Bennie Shobe. All three are Democrats, although this is an officially nonpartisan election, and they're going up against Stan Parker, Maher Aurang Zeb and Jerry Shoecraft. They are all officially Republicans in the officially nonpartisan election. Actually, Jerry Shoecraft has some past experience. He was a former city council member in the early 2000s Stan Parker has previously run for mayor, and Maher Aurang Zeb has also been in a lot of elections. He's previously run for city council, state legislature and airport authority, and so a lot of these challengers have experience, but it's still based on the primary results, the incumbents have the upper hand going into Election Day.

Ourada: Good to know. Lincoln voters are also weighing in on a ballot measure that, if passed, will affect both landlords and renters across the city. What should we know about that?

Beach: This started as an initiative petition earlier this year, and they collected enough valid signatures to be approved for the general election ballot. Now, voters passed this housing income discrimination ban. That means that landlords can't deny potential tenants based solely on their source of income. That source of income could be something like section eight vouchers or other benefits like Social Security payments. Now, proponents of the measure say it will help both renters and landlords by expanding Housing Choice and reducing concentrated poverty. On the other hand, opponents have said this will cause more work for landlords, since they have to pass property inspections from housing authorities.

Ourada: Thanks for that rundown. Now, Lincoln is known for having a good amount of early voters. You visited with some of them Monday, on the last day to vote early in person at the Election Commission's office. What were their thoughts on this election?

Beach: All four of the people I talked to mention progressive values as being very important. All four of them expressed some form of support for the Housing Income discrimination ban, and really talked about the importance of voting. Now this isn't particularly surprising, as a lot of the early voters tend to lean more progressive, and this was shown in the primary results, where on just the early ballots cast, the Democratic candidates, and Democratic line candidates had a much greater proportion of the vote share, but actually it was the Republican aligned candidates who had more votes on election day. So that's another interesting thing to look out for as those results begin coming in tonight.

Ourada: Okay, thanks for your reporting, Brian, and we'll be following your coverage of the results later tonight.

Beach: Thank you.

Ourada: That's Brian beach reporting. I'm Jackie Ourada. Happy Election Day.