Nebraska Board of Canvassers certifies election results

Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Bena said he spent the majority of election day dealing with yard signs that were too close to a polling site.

“If that's the biggest part of my day, I know it's going to be a good day,” he said.

The November general election was the first with a voter ID requirement in Nebraska.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen said it was a success.

“Our county election officials and the Elections Division of the Secretary of State's office performed exemplary work in this election,” he said. “Our voters as well, who were part of first effort in the general election when voter ID was in effect, our voters stood up to that, and our voters complied well with the requirements of voter ID.”

Bena said approximately 345 ballots were rejected due to voters not providing ID and 654 early voting ballots were rejected due to not signing the back of the envelope.

The Secretary of State’s office conducted a post-election audit to certify the accuracy of the ballot counting machines. Bena said 69,764 ballots were hand counted in 133 precincts. Only 7 had discrepancies with the machine count.

“What this does show, and it has shown in our audits after every election, is our machines are counting these votes accurately, and our votes are secure,” he said.

Bena also reported three issues with ballot misprints to the Board of Canvassers.

Those included a Natural Resources District Board race in Gage County, a State Board of Education race in Johnson County and a Public Power District Board race in Dawson County.

In Dawson County, 240 ballots were mailed out on October 7 that incorrectly told voters to vote for one instead of voting for two candidates in the election. On October 11, updated ballots were sent out with the corrected language.

"The clerk did everything that they were supposed to do if an error like this occurs, to be able to correct the wrong and give the voters the opportunity to vote the corrected ballot," Bena said.

Only 20 votes separated the second and third-place candidates in the race for a 6-year term on the Dawson County Public Power district board while 61 returned ballots did not have the correct language.

"Since 20 is less than 61, this error had the potential of affecting the outcome," Bena said.

Regardless of the error, the margin of 20 votes is small enough to require an automatic recount, which the Board of Canvassers ordered Monday.

The board will reconvene on December 10 to certify the recount results.