Last-Minute Voter Info

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great to have you here this morning on election day
for the city of Omaha, and we're joined for a
couple of minutes here by Brian Cruz, Douglas County Election Commissioner,
with one hundred and sixty seven polling place is about
to open in about forty three minutes.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Brian, good morning, Hey, good morning guys. How are you
this same?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well? What is there today on election day for somebody
who may just have said, Okay, I get yeah, okay,
I guess I'll go vote that they need to know
that they may not know.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah. The first thing is we're voter ID state now,
so be sure you got an acceptable four Mumbai D
course in Nebraska, driver's license or state ID is the
most common and the easiest. The other thing is be
sure you know where you're going. We've had thirteen polling
place changes since the November election, so just make sure
you know you're going to the right place. You can

(00:53):
call our office at four oh two four four four vote,
or you can go to our website vote Douglascounty dot
com and go to the find your Voting Information taba.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
What can you tell us about the stats from early
voting so far?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, so you know, we mailed out about fifty eight
thousand early voting ballots and we have got back about
forty six thousand, so that's about an eighty percent return rate.
So there's still about twelve thousand ballots out there to
be returned today. So if you've got one of those,

(01:30):
you have until eight o'clock tonight to use one of
our drop boxes. Obviously, don't use the US mail, it'll
never never get to us. And I'm expecting early voting
to be at least sixty percent of this election. In course,
those results will be reported first tonight at eight pm.
Those will be the first results out of the gate

(01:51):
we see. So you know, if you've still got one
of those ballots, get it in to date. Now. The
ballots return today are not counted until Friday, and that's
because we have to do the election integrity process where
we have to verify the ballot, verify the signature, and
if we get six or seven thousand or more of

(02:13):
those today, it's going to take us a couple of
days to do that, and then we'll begin to count
those at ten o'clock on Friday morning, all.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Right, So that means that if it's close after eight
o'clock tonight, then we won't really know a result until Friday.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
It very well could be because then we've got a
forty five is the eight am to two pm voting
from today, then nine forty five and ten forty five.
Hopefully we're done at ten forty five, but yeah, if
if the mayor's race or a couple of city council
races are close, we may very well have to wait
until early Friday afternoon. That's right.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
How many registered voters in the city of Omaha.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
About two hundred ninety three thousand, and we've got.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
What kind of turnout are you suggesting hers expecting?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah? I predicted thirty two percent, which would be ninety
three thousand, you know, seven hundred. The most we've ever
had was in twenty seventeen when the mayor and Heath
Mellow challenged each other and we had you know, ninety
nine thousand back then, and that was thirty five percent.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
You got two hundred thousand not voting. That's unbelievable. Well,
people don't care. You get twenty seven percent of sixty
percent because only sixty percent of those eligible are registered. Yeah, yeah, no,
that's a good point.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Okay, Yeah, so you know it's it's important to vote.
These These are the elections, like you guys have said,
affect your everyday lives. I mean really, you know once
you head out your door, from parts to pools to
public safety libraries, these these affect your everyday life. Yeah,
be sure and get out there and vote today.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, we have. I wonder about the city council districts
that have an incumbent unopposed if that suppresses turnout. And
if it does, that's going to be bad news for
Mayor Stothard because Brinker Harding and Don Rowe are two

(04:17):
of the three Republicans on the council and big supporters
of Mayor stother Then some of those folks might say, well,
you know, Brinker is going to be and I'm fine,
I don't know anyway, Brian, thanks, we'll be in touch.
Appreciate it you. Brian Cruz, Douglas County Election Commissioner,