LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – This Election Day, Nebraskans will have the opportunity to weigh in on two historic and conflicting ballot measures regarding abortion access in the state.

VOTER’S GUIDE: 2024 Nebraska General Election

Initiative 434 aims to put the existing 12-week abortion ban into the state’s constitution, while Initiative 439 is trying expand abortion access up to the point of fetal viability. This is the first time that Nebraska is having two competing ballot measures.

“There’s nothing about these that can be reconciled. So whichever one of these gets the most votes is likely to become the initiative that gets adopted into the Nebraska constitution,” Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said in April.

The Nebraska Legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban in 2023, and Initiative 434 would enshrine that into the state’s constitution but allow for abortion when necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy stems from sexual assault or incest.

Protect Women and Children is campaigning for Initiative 434.

“Initiative 434 protects laws that require parental consent before a girl under 18 can get an abortion, allowing parents to be their for our daughters. This is just common sense,” Rebecca Schwend, who supports 434, said.

Hannah Dumais, a field organizer campaigning for the conflicting Initiative 439, said the current ban is hurting women across the state.

“I personally was a woman who ended up miscarrying at 16.5 weeks and I started to miscarry, and I was sent home and had to wait until I was hemorrhaging and almost dead before I had to come back. And so I know the type of impact that it has on women from a personal standpoint,” Dumais said.

Advocates of 434 look to this as a moral necessity.

“Abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent child. That is not healthcare. How can it be called healthcare when the procedure ends in death,” Kate Leising who supports 434 said.

The initiatives will be the last thing you see on your ballot, and 434 is the first of six to vote on.

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After suffering two losses in a row, there has been mounting criticism of the Nebraska Cornhuskers offense and specifically offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield. However, freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola believes that criticism is unfair.

While being asked about the offense’s lack of explosive plays, Raiola shared that he’s confident the Cornhuskers can find more big plays. He also took the time to point out that he feels Satterfield is giving them opportunities but the issue has been execution.

“I feel confident. I think it’s just a matter of execution, now,” Dylan Raiola said. “You know, Coach Satt gives us the plays to go do it and as players we have to go out there and execute it. I know Coach Satt’s getting a lot of heat right now on his plays that he’s calling and I think that’s unfair to him.”

The numbers on offense haven’t been great for Nebraska this season. It’s been three weeks since the Cornhuskers scored more than 17 points in a game and Nebraska only scored more than 30 points twice, both of which were non-conference games.

For the season, Nebraska is 93rd in the country in total offense, averaging 358.1 yards per game. Then, the Cornhuskers are 96th in scoring offense this season, averaging 24 points per game.

“He can’t go out there and make plays and do everything that he’s coaching us to do,” Raiola said. “So, as players and as the quarterback of this offense, I take the responsibility for that and for us to go out there and execute. That’s not his fault. Yeah, I think we can push the ball down the field and I think we will.”

That relationship between Dylan Raiola and Marcus Satterfield is, of course, vital to the Cornhuskers moving forward. Still a freshman, Raiola is growing as a quarterback and that growth is largely going to be thanks to the work that Satterfield does.

For the season, Raiola has completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 1,744 yards and nine touchdowns to go with seven interceptions. That’s 218 passing yards per game. However, in Nebraska’s last three games, Raiola hasn’t thrown a touchdown and has four interceptions. Twice in those three games, he’s thrown for less than 200 yards in the game.

Nebraska is currently 5-3, looking to snap a two-game losing streak and get to bowl eligibility for the season. If they do, it would be the program’s first time getting to a bowl since 2016. Standing in Nebraska’s way is a UCLA team coming off its first Big Ten win.

Matt Rhule, Dylan Raiola and Nebraska football return to the field for one of the Huskers’ most important games of the season as they seek bowl eligibility vs. UCLA on Saturday.

The Huskers (5-3 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) were reeling coming off a 56-7 loss at Indiana but rebounded in a significant way last week to nearly pull off a road upset of No. 4 Ohio State in a 21-17 loss.

Now, Nebraska returns to Lincoln for its first home game since a 14-7 win over Rutgers on Oct. 5 as it hosts the struggling Bruins (2-5, 1-4) at 2:30 p.m. CT this Saturday on Big Ten Network.

UCLA faced a daunting schedule to open the season but ended a five-game losing streak to No. 13 Indiana, No. 16 LSU (road), No. 1 Oregon, at No. 3 Penn State (road) and unranked Minnesota* with a 35-32 win at Rutgers two weeks ago before hitting a bye week.

Inside Nebraska publisher Zack Carpenter, staff writer Steve Marik and recruiting analyst Tim Verghese give their takes and projections on how they envision things playing out between the Huskers and Bruins in the latest edition of Bold Predictions.

*All rankings are current. Indiana was unranked, LSU was ranked No. 16, Oregon was ranked No. 8, and Penn State was ranked No. 7 at the time of those games.