Nebraska Board of State Canvassers certifies primary election results

Results from Nebraska’s May primary election have now been certified, thanks to approval from the Nebraska Board of State Canvassers.

The five-member board, which includes Gov. Jim Pillen, State Auditor Mike Foley, Secretary of State Bob Evnen, Attorney General Mike Hilgers and State Treasurer Tom Briese, voted unanimously to certify the results at a meeting at the state capitol Monday.

Pillen said Nebraskans can be 100% confident that the election was fair, secure and accurate.

“The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “The data is very, very straightforward.”

According to Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Bena, nearly 8,000 ballots were counted in a post-election audit, representing 3% of the total ballots cast in the state.

He said his office found no discrepancies between the ballot counting machines and the manually counted ballots as part of the audit.

The May 2024 primary election was the first to require voter ID, and Secretary of State Bob Evnen said there were very few difficulties with the new requirement on election

“The voters really stepped up and so did the elections officials across the state,” he said.

Evnen also thanked election workers for helping things run smoothly.

“The citizens of the state of Nebraska owe a great debt of gratitude to our county election officials, our county clerks and county election commissioners across all 93 counties who themselves are deeply committed and work very hard to assure that elections in Nebraska are secure and are accurate or fair," he said.

None of the statewide races had a margin of less than 1%, meaning that no automatic recounts will be taken.

Due to the lack of an automatic recount, the next Board of Canvassers meeting, previously scheduled for next Monday, was cancelled.