Omaha residents to cast their ballots in general election on Tuesday

Tuesday is general election day in Omaha, where voters are set to decide who will lead Nebraska’s largest city over the next four years. Nebraska Public Media’s Jackie Ourada spoke with Arthur Jones who’s covering the election.

Jackie Ourada: Quite a few offices will be decided this election with all seven City Council seats up for grabs. But what's caught quite a bit of attention over the last week is the mayoral race. Can you catch us up on that?

Arthur Jones: So the two candidates, Mayor Jean Stothert and Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing Jr., they've been having fairly consistent debates since the primary concluded and according to this reporter, me, it's been fairly civil so far, but – and a heavy but – this past week, Omahans received mailers criticizing Ewing for supporting trans athletes, traffic cameras and gender-affirming surgeries for kids, all three topics not having been significant talking points up until last week. These mailers were sent out by the Omaha Leadership Fund, a political action committee that has recently donated $10,000 to the Stothert campaign. Stothert has come out and backed the content of these mailers.

Ourada: OK, is there anything to keep an eye on outside of the mayoral race, we still have a lot of city council seats up for grabs and also ballot measures. What do those look like?

Jones: As you've mentioned, all of the Omaha City Council seats are up for election. Two of the incumbents, Brinker Harding and Don Rowe, are running unopposed, but the other five seats have two candidates facing off. District Two is the only race where the previous Council member, Juanita Johnson, was primaried. In that race, a former district two Councilman, Ben Gray, is competing with Lavanya Goodwin, the executive director of the North 24th Street business improvement district. There is also a city charter amendment being voted on. The amendment would make it so if a City Council member vacates their seat within the first two years of their term, the seat is put up for special election. If they vacate during the last two years of the term, the City Council then has 30 days to appoint a new council member. In both cases, the new council member would fulfill the rest of the term. From the sources I have found, this is predicated off the arrest of Vinny Palermo, a previous Council member that vacated his seat about halfway through, and then they appointed Councilman Ron Hug in his place. And I think this was just meant to kind of get the structures in place if that were to happen again.

Ourada: What is the turnout expected to be? And can you run down any last minute voting reminders for Omahans who want to cast their ballots in this election and have not done so yet?

Jones: I spoke to Brian Kruse, the Douglas County Election Commissioner, and he says he expects about a 32% turnout. According to him, that is around 18,000 more people than voted in the primary, where there was about a 25.5% turnout. If a voter is planning on submitting their early ballot on election day, it is recommended they drop it off at a ballot drop box. For those who are going to vote in person, the precincts will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day. If someone is unsure of where their precinct is or if their voting location is changed, it can be found at the Douglas County Election Commission's website.

Ourada: All right, we'll keep an eye on how things turn out.

Jones: Unofficial results will start being posted election night at 8 p.m. following that, further results will be posted at 8:45 p.m., 9:45 p.m. and then 10:45 p.m. If the election is particularly tight, the final winners might not be known until this Friday, that being when the early ballots submitted on Monday afternoon and Tuesday will be counted. But of course, we'll bring you coverage of those results on social media and at Nebraskapublicmedia.org/news,

Ourada: That's Arthur Jones reporting from Omaha on Omaha's general election. We'll keep you updated on Nebraska Public Media. Thanks, Arthur.

Jones: Thank you. Jackie.