One of the bills I was able to pass this past session was LB 843. It was an election law bill that had pieces of seven different bills amended into it. Any bill that deals with this subject is one of the hardest things to pass in the Nebraska Legislature. I don’t believe I have ever passed a bill that had this many authors. 

The bill does a number of things. It prohibits electioneering within 200 feet of a ballot drop box. It establishes a deadline of 8 p.m. Central time or 7 p.m. Mountain time on Election Day for receipt of mail-in ballots. It requires non-governmental organizations distributing voter registration forms or early ballot application forms to use those prescribed by the Nebraska secretary of state. It expands the definition of voting system to include software or service used in the process of creating, casting and counting ballots. The bill allows an election commissioner or county clerk to remove a voter from the voter registry if they receive information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles that the voter has moved out of state. It also establishes procedures for removing a voter from a county’s early ballot request list.

LB 843 ended up with pieces of LB 733 from Omaha Sen. John Cavanaugh, which prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to ballot question campaigns. Another one of my bills, LB 841, allows emergency responders, including the National Guard who are responding to an emergency declaration by the president or governor to simultaneously register to vote and request ballots for all elections in a calendar year. LB 849 was a bill introduced by Lincoln Sen. Eliot Bostar, which makes election officials who neglect their duties or willfully engage in conduct prohibited under the state Election Act subject to a Class I misdemeanor. Sen. Clements brought LB 858 which prohibits the funding of elections by any source other than appropriations from the federal government, the state of Nebraska and Nebraska political subdivisions. County clerks are prohibited from soliciting or accepting grants or donations from private parties.. LB 861, introduced by Omaha Sen. John McCollister, provides an optional field on candidate filing forms for the candidate’s email address. LB 928, introduced by Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, requires televised political ads for certain statewide offices to be closed captioned and for a transcript of radio ads to be posted on a candidate’s campaign website. 

I feel one of the most important features of the bill was provided by Senator Clements. LB 1263 establishes statewide standards for ballot drop boxes. Drop boxes must be securely anchored, locked, Americans with Disabilities Act compliant and opened only by a county election commissioner, county clerk or election official designated by the commissioner or clerk. 

More can be done to improve the integrity of Nebraska’s elections, but passing LB 843 was a great big step in the right direction. It passed on a 45-0 vote.