With lengthy ballot for general election, groups focus on voter education

Voters have a lot to consider this November with a full ballot set for the general election.

There are six ballot initiatives in next month’s election. There’s one on paid sick leave, one on school choice and two for both abortion and marijuana. So there will be a lot of text on the ballots.

That means those who work to make sure voters understand the issues are especially busy. Tari Hendrickson serves on the board of directors for the League of Women Voters-Lincoln Lancaster and has helped organize voter education events as the chair of the League’s Lunch and Learn committee.

“We've had to do a lot of extra work this session because of all the ballot initiatives,” she said. “A lot of activity that's been happening here recently that tells me we've got a lot of people who are paying attention and becoming involved. I think that's a good thing. We just want to make sure everybody knows what they're voting for.”

Hendrickson added the league’s nonpartisan voter education work has seen renewed engagement this year.

Rachel Gibson, the vice president of action for the state League of Women Voters, hosted an event where initiatives were broken down so voters could understand what each one meant.

“We were really glad to be able to talk about the ballot initiative piece, because not only are there several, but there are several that are around the same topic,” Gibson said. "So it's even more important that people understand which initiative is which [and] what they actually mean. Because it can be overwhelming."

The League of Women Voters isn’t the only organization working on that front. Denise Blaya Powell, a partner at She’s Electable and co-founder of the nonpartisan Women Who Run Nebraska, also organized a seminar for voters to understand the many ballot initiatives.

“There are a lot of them this year, more than ever before, and there was a lot of back and forth, because the process for getting a measure on the ballot involves signature collection,” she said. “Then it involves some verification from the Secretary of State's Office. So people had questions about what made it onto the ballot.”

Blaya Powell emphasized how important it is for voters to not “check out” of this election, rather to research the ballot ahead of time and thoroughly read through each initiative. She echoed Gibson in the concern about understanding the opposing ballot measures.

“Voter education involves truly just providing people with as much information as you can,” Blaya Powell added. “And the thing is, there are so many things to educate voters on on the ballot this year. So the education that we're trying to do is just to be very clear about the intention of both ballot issues.”

If a voter chooses yes for both abortion measures or similarly no for both abortion measures, they would essentially cancel each other out, she explained.

The League of Women Voters Lincoln-Lancaster put together a list of ballot initiatives and their descriptions in both English and Spanish.