Nebraska voter ID law kept some votes from being counted but vast majority comply

LINCOLN — Hundreds of Nebraskans didn't have their votes counted this year because of the state's new voter identification law.

But election officials said the vast majority of people voting in the May primary and November general election complied with requirements to show photographic IDs before voting, whether they voted early at election offices, by mail or showed up at polling places on Election Day.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen said 99.95% of voters in the primary complied with the law and had their votes counted. Officials from the state's two largest counties, Douglas and Lancaster, reported a similar pattern for the general election.

'I really think it went amazingly well'Statewide numbers for the general election won't be known until late this month, after all counties report results to the state, but Evnen said last week that "county election offices reported consistent voter turnout throughout Election Day with almost all voters prepared to fulfill the new voter ID requirement."

"Overall, I really think it went amazingly well," said Brian Kruse, Douglas County election commissioner. "Voters were informed and educated. I'm happy with the outcome."

Still, there were people whose ballots were tossed out because they did not have an approved ID and couldn't or didn't return to show one by the deadline.

Election officials rejected 98 general election ballots in Douglas County, where 270,735 ballots were cast. In Lancaster County, home to about 151,000 voters this year, 37 general election ballots were rejected for lack of proper identification. Nearly 200 primary election ballots were tossed statewide because voters did not provide an approved ID, including 142 from voters in counties or precincts with all-mail voting. The statewide general election numbers for rejected ballots are not available yet.

Nebraska voters were first required to show IDs during the May 14 primary election. The requirements were put in place through a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2022 and fleshed out by a state law in 2023.

Under the law, people who do not bring an approved ID to the polls are allowed to cast provisional ballots. Those ballots are counted if the voter takes an approved ID to their county election office within seven days after the election or if they certify they cannot get an ID because of one of three "reasonable impediments" allowed by law.

Those impediments include a religious objection to being photographed, a disability or illness that prevents a person from getting an ID or the inability to get a birth certificate or other documents needed to get an ID.

But this year's experience showed only a minority of voters who cast such provisional ballots took the necessary steps to have their votes count, both in the primary and the general election.

In Douglas County, Kruse said 23 general election voters returned with proper ID by the Tuesday deadline, while 25 had their reasonable impediment certification accepted, out of the 146 who voted provisionally for lack of ID. Among them, he said, was one woman who filed a reasonable impediment form because she had encountered delay after delay getting her birth certificate from Chicago.

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen reported that 13 of 50 such voters came back with IDs. In the primary, 45 out of 236 voters statewide followed through.

Kruse said he didn't know why people did not come back. His office did some checking and found seven of the 146 voters had Nebraska driver's licenses or state ID cards. But he said none of the seven responded to a phone call or came back to show those IDs.

Wiltgen speculated people may not have been motivated to make the extra trip once the unofficial election results had been reported. He said none of the races in Lancaster County were close enough to be affected by those votes. Some voters, however, came back to ensure their voting history remained uninterrupted, he said.

While provisional voters had the opportunity to have their votes counted, it was unclear how many Nebraskans may not have voted because of the new law. Kruse said he did not know of anyone turned away because they didn't have proper ID.

Wiltgen said one Lincoln man left the polls without voting after officials refused to accept his out-of-state driver's license. He said the man had a passport, which is an approved form of ID, but he refused to go get it out of storage. He also refused to vote provisionally and got angry enough that police were called.

"He was not prevented from voting," Wiltgen said. "He chose not to."

'One person denied access to the ballot is one too many'

Heidi Uhing, director of public policy for Civic Nebraska, and Jane Seu, legal and policy counsel for ACLU of Nebraska, said their organizations fielded some calls on Election Day about poll workers incorrectly turned people away or requiring them to vote provisionally because the address on their ID did not match the voter registration rolls.

Uhing said their voter hotline got "a rash of calls" about the issue concerning five precincts in three counties. She said they reported the issue to election officials, who alerted poll workers and the public that state law does not require current addresses on ID.

Neither she nor Seu could say whether voters affected by the confusion returned to vote later. Seu said the possibility that some may have missed their chance to vote is concerning.

"One person denied access to the ballot is one too many," she said.

Several Nebraskans made use of options included in the voter ID law for getting free identification cards to vote. The Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles has issued 14,957 free state ID cards in 2024, while the Department of Health and Human Services issued 78 free birth certificates to people seeking IDs to vote.

But DMV Director Rhonda Lahm said she could not identify how many people who got free ID cards sought them so they could vote. As of July 1, the state-made ID cards are free to any citizen who is a Nebraska resident, instead of just to those needing a card to vote.