Election

Misconceptions

By law, we do not mail out ballots if unrequested. When we do mail out ballots, requests must be in writing and applications must be processed by the Lancaster County Election Commission. These ballot requests are considered public record and retained for twenty-two months following every election.

All early voting information is documented in the Absentee Roster, which is publicly available, for every election in Lancaster County.

Nebraska’s centralized voter registration database changes every day — for a variety of reasons. From individuals changing addresses to people who have passed away, the Absentee Roster and Sign-in Registers for each election accurately identify the number of individuals voting in a particular election. These public records are available for public inspection and retained for twenty-two months following each election.

The digital scanners used to count ballots are not connected to the internet. Results are tabulated, printed onto a hard copy for verification, and then exported via military-grade, encrypted flash drives to a computer. This secure computer is never connected to the internet.

During the 2024 statewide election, bipartisan teams did a hand-count audit for ballots in three contests, and 3% of precincts were randomly selected statewide. This review resulted in the hand-counting of nearly 8,000 ballots across 40 precincts. There were zero discrepancies between the hand count and Nebraska’s ballot counting equipment. By comparison, studies have found the discrepancy rate for hand-counted ballots often ranges from 0.3% to 1%.

By law, each counting machine in Nebraska is tested ahead of every election for programming accuracy. Separate tests are conducted by staff of different party affiliations to verify the accuracy of each counting machine.

These logic and accuracy tests are performed on all counting machines before each election.

Following each state-wide election, the Secretary of State randomly identifies precincts for manual audits. This hand count verifies the machine counts, and any discrepancies will be noted in the official canvas report.

The Lancaster County Election Commission retains the paper ballots from each election for twenty-two months as required by law. These ballots constitute the cast vote record. There is no requirement to create an electronic cast vote record because all votes in Nebraska are cast on paper.

We manually update Lancaster County’s voter registration rolls nearly every single day.

Each change to voter registration is processed by someone at the Lancaster County Election Commission. There are no automatic changes, and every change is documented to ensure accuracy.

The number of registered voters often increases ahead of elections, with the most prominent upticks occurring during statewide election years. Our daily update process ensures voter rolls are accurate and up-to-date, reflecting legitimate changes.