Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen says Election Day 2024 has been running fairly smoothly, but he tells KLIN News there have been some issues with the new Voter ID mandate.
Civic Nebraska says reports to calls to their Voter Helpline and from its volunteer election observers indicated confusion regarding the state’s new ID mandate at several polling sites Tuesday morning.
As of noon, Civic Nebraska had received five reports, two in Lancaster County, two in Sarpy County and one in Douglas County, where poll workers were incorrectly telling voters they could not cast a ballot because the address on their ID did not match the address on their voter registration.
“This is an unnecessary barrier. Matching addresses are not a requirement in Nebraska’s ID mandate,” says Director of Communications Steve Smith. He says In most instances the errors resulted in voters resorting to casting provisional ballots, known as the “ballot of last resort,” which will not be counted until after Election Day.
Smith says in some cases, at precincts in Omaha, Lincoln, and Bellevue, voters reported being turned away from the polls entirely for this reason. Wiltgen says he appreciates Civic Nebraska giving them a heads up that this was happening.
“We were able to follow up with the board workers to make sure they were not checking the address on the ID,” Wiltgen says. “The information and their training wasn’t being followed and they were just inexperienced board workers.”