No payment means no recount of blowout Douglas County Board race
OMAHA — When the clock struck 5 on Monday, the Douglas County Board candidate who sought a ballot recount at his own cost — after soundly losing his May primary — failed to follow through by putting money behind his accusations. Ken Anderson of Omaha did not pay the $2,200 cost required by the close […] The post No payment means no recount of blowout Douglas County Board race appeared first on Nebraska Examiner. Ken Anderson, a candidate for Douglas County Board in Nebraska, did not pay the $2,200 cost required to have a recount conducted in his race after he lost his May primary. This was due to Anderson's margin of 65-35, far larger than the close races that trigger taxpayer-funded recounts under state law. Anderson raised $900 for his race and is among populist conservatives who advocate for the hand-counting of paper ballots instead of machine counting. Post-election audits funded by conservative and liberal groups have found machine counts faster and more accurate than counts conducted by hand. Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Bena stated there were no discrepancies between the hand tallies and the counting machines.
Published : 11 months ago by Aaron Sanderford in Politics
Nebraska's 2024 primary elections took place in May. (Getty Images)
OMAHA — When the clock struck 5 on Monday, the Douglas County Board candidate who sought a ballot recount at his own cost — after soundly losing his May primary — failed to follow through by putting money behind his accusations.
Ken Anderson of Omaha did not pay the $2,200 cost required by the close of business Monday to have the Douglas County Election Commission recount his race.
In order for a recount to be done, he would have had to pay for it. That’s because he lost his May 14 GOP primary to Sean Kelly, 65%-35%, a margin far wider than the close races that trigger taxpayer-funded recounts under state law.
Anderson said he never received an expected payment from others who said they supported his efforts.
“It would’ve taken a pledge that ended up not coming,” he said Monday.
Political observers had questioned whether Anderson would secure the funds unless he was nationally supported. The former Omaha Public Schools board member raised $900 for his race.
He said last week he never planned to win but wanted to be in position to request the new count after campaigning on getting machines out of the vote-counting business.
He is among populist conservatives who echo former President Donald Trump pushing for hand-counting of paper ballots instead of machine counting, together with audits for verifying accuracy.
Officials: Machines can be more accurate
Post-election audits funded by conservative and liberal groups alike have found machine counts faster and typically more accurate than counts conducted by hand.
Nebraska, which formally accepted its primary election results on Monday during a meeting of the Board of State Canvassers, randomly checked the results of 40 precincts, or 3% of precincts statewide.
The board used paper ballots to check the machine counts in one federal race, one state race and one local race on each of 7,898 ballots. Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Bena told the board Monday that “there were zero discrepancies between the hand tallies and the counting machines.”
Variances between machine and hand counts are typically small.
The board’s participants are Gov. Jim Pillen, Secretary of State Bob Evnen, Attorney General Mike Hilgers, State Treasurer Tom Briese and Auditor of Public Accounts Mike Foley.
“I think that Nebraskans have good reason to take pride in the quality of the elections that are run across our state,” Evnen said Monday afternoon.
Anderson, who said he works in software development, has said he knows that some people would view him as an election conspiracy theorist. But he said he knows his facts.
His email address is an accusation against Omaha-based Election Systems and Software, one of the largest companies producing the machines. ES&S has defended its software and machines as secure.
Anderson said he joins a weekly conference call on election integrity that includes My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell. Lindell is being sued for defamation by two voting machine companies.
Odds and ends from the canvassing board meeting:
• None No automatic recounts were triggered this year in statewide races, though one problem was reported in rural Harlan County, where all voting is conducted by mail. Election officials realized shortly after sending out 1,301 ballots that they were not initialed or signed by the county clerk, as required by state law. Voters were sent a replacement ballot with an explanation and instructions. Still, 184 voters returned the original, invalid ballots, which were not counted. However, 137 of the 184 worked with county election officials in time to vote using a valid ballot. The other 47 votes were not counted, but officials said they would not have changed a single federal or state result.
• None This year was the first time Nebraska has broken out registered nonpartisan voters by which party’s federal ballot they chose, if any. Such voters need to ask for a particular party’s ballot. The largest group, 16,199 nonpartisan voters, did not request a certain party’s federal ballot. The second-largest group, 8,635 voters, selected a Republican ballot. Another 6,386 voters selected a Democratic ballot. Some 794 voters selected a Legal Marijuana NOW ballot. And 417 voters chose a Libertarian ballot.
• None Voter turnout landed at 28.1%, higher than in other recent presidential primary years with the exception of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when turnout jumped to 40.5% fueled in part by wider use of early voting.
• None A higher percentage of registered Republicans turned out for the primary, with 36.1%. Democrats were next at 28.4%. As expected in a party primary, nonpartisan turnout was lower, at 12%. About 8.4% of Libertarians voted and 6.3% in Legal Marijuana NOW.
Evnen said Nebraskans owe “a great debt of gratitude” to county election officials, clerks and commissioners who are deeply committed and work hard to ensure the security, accuracy and fairness of Nebraska elections, including in a historic year when photo ID was launched.
Pillen said that the “proof’s in the pudding” from the first statewide election since he was elected governor and that Nebraskans can be “100% confident” in the election’s security and accuracy.
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