Security issues will delay election returns (Ne)

[Omaha Steve]

Full story reg req: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1673&u_sid=2249338

Published Monday
September 25, 2006

Security issues will delay election returns

LINCOLN (AP) - Nebraska voters will find out the results of the November election a lot later than in previous years.

Secretary of State John Gale says he's changing things to increase ballot security.

That means no counting of ballots before the polls close.

Gale said Friday that if early returns leaked before polls close, campaigns might have time to round up more people to vote for their candidates.

"Anecdotally, I've learned that such leaks may have occurred," he said, although he added that he did not believe the outcome of any elections had been compromised.

The changes were suggested by an outside election observer, who was in Nebraska during the May primary.

"Security is an enormous risk," Gale told a gathering of media representatives. "In each county office, you have four to six people with partisan affiliation with access to information nobody else has."

Under the new rule, Gale expects to have 30 percent of the statewide vote counted by 10 p.m. instead of the 60 percent people are used to.

Absentee ballots still can be counted before polls close, but those account for only about 5 percent of the vote, Gale said.

The practice in small counties has been to have two sets of ballot boxes. One set was sent in for hand counting at midday and the other set was used until polls closed.

FULL story at link above.

[Wilms]

1. Neat story.

Do you know if they will still hand count in the smaller counties mentioned?

[Omaha Steve]

2. I know very little about it

There was a law changed last year about how smaller counties are counted. I don't know enough about it to comment. I've just changed job locations and duties. We are also moving in the next few weeks. I won't have time to think about looking into this until after the first of the year. Sorry. :-(

[Wilms]

3. Be sure to come-on back once you're settled.

Best :hi: