Nebraska
Nebraska’s open and closed primaries: How they work for nonpartisan voters
Overstreet said that while a general election may have about 120 different ballot faces across the county, the primary may have 120 ballot faces for each party.
“Everybody has some races that are the same across the entire county — the governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general — all of those state offices or federal offices can be county-wide, but you start slicing and dicing on local races, and you get a lot of different ballot faces,” Overstreet said.
Here’s how that works for different registered voters.
Those who belong to a political party get a ballot corresponding to their party. For example, registered Republicans get a Republican ballot.
For those not registered with a political party, they get a nonpartisan ballot, which has nonpartisan races like State Board of Education and state Legislature. Then, they can request what’s called a “nonpartisan partisan” ballot. Overstreet said many independent voters don’t realize they have this option – they can weigh in on some partisan races.
“You would have to request the second ballot. It’s not something that they say, ‘Hey, do you want a second ballot?’” Overstreet said. “You have to know it. You have to know that you can ask for it so you can weigh in on your Senate and House seat.”
The Democratic and Libertarian parties keep their primaries open to other voters. That’s not the case for the Republican and Legal Marijuana NOW parties. Nonpartisan voters can still request one of these ballots, but it will only have the races for the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives — and that’s required by law.
Mary Jane Truemper, chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party, said sometimes the GOP has chosen to have an open primary, but for now, they keep it closed to only Republican voters. That’s caused some voters in Nebraska to change their political affiliation ahead of primaries.
“We just chose not to at this point, but we want Republicans choosing the Republican candidates, and that’s just the way we’ve decided it was best for us,” Truemper said.
Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the NDP keeps an open primary because the number of Democrats and nonpartisan voters together can compete with the Republicans in the state.
“We even endorse and support independent candidates,” Kleeb said. “We make sure that they have access to party resources. We just really want to create a coalition, not only of supporting independent candidates, but also supporting independent voters.”
Constantly preparing for the next election
Political party officials start thinking about election day as soon as possible, most times after the last election.
Truemper said the party is currently assessing every race to see who is running as a Republican and who their competition is.
“One of our goals is always to put Republicans in seats,” Truemper said. “We try to identify districts where maybe there’s a Democrat now that we see an opportunity for us to have a Republican in there and focus on those districts.”
Truemper has spent the months leading up to the election working on messaging for the Republican party, connecting with county parties and looking for future candidates. She said a big part of preparation is finding ways to encourage people to vote in the primary.
“What can we do in [congressional district] two, [congressional district] one, especially if there’s not a really highly competitive race in the primary, because that affects your down ballot races, and so that’s what we’re doing now, is working out strategies,” Truemper said.
Kleeb, with the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the NDP is also focused on getting Democrats in seats, especially when it comes to the state Legislature.
“We’re really making sure that we spend some time and money on those races to ensure that in the rural legislative races that we get the Democrat over the finish line, so we have a fighting chance in the general election,” Kleeb said.
The NDP is also looking for ways to connect with voters ahead of the primary, including mailers, phone calls and texts. Kleeb said they are doing voter guides for the primary, which isn’t the usual plan.
“We usually only do them in the general, but we’re going to do voter guides in the primary this year, too,” Kleeb said. “That lets voters know who the Democrats are on the ballot, because there are so many nonpartisan races.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (KSNB) – Nebraska has some new millionaires, so check your tickets to see if you are one of them.
Two lucky players who bought Powerball tickets for the Wednesday, April 29, drawing are holding tickets worth $1 million.
The Nebraska Lottery has confirmed that two tickets sold for Wednesday’s $143 million Powerball drawing matched the first five numbers, but not the Powerball number itself.
- Trotter’s Whoa & Go Express IV, 1111 S. 2nd St. in Ord.
- Mega Saver, 4725 S. 77th Ave. in Omaha.
The winning numbers from Wednesday’s Powerball drawing were 3, 19, 35, 51, 67; the Powerball was 15.
Thirty-four $1 million Powerball winning tickets have been sold in Nebraska since the $1 million prize was added to the game in January 2012.
Winning Nebraska Lottery Lotto tickets expire 180 days after the drawing.
If your prize is $20,000 or more, you must claim it in person at Lottery headquarters in Lincoln. Additional information about claiming prizes can be found at the Nebraska Lottery website, nelottery.com, or by calling 800-587-5200.
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Copyright 2026 KSNB. All rights reserved.
KEARNEY, Neb. (KOLN) – Nebraska’s auctioneers battled on stage at the 43rd annual Bid-Calling/Ringman competition in Kearney. The event, organized by the Nebraska Auctioneers Association, was held in conjunction with the 78th annual Nebraska Auctioneers Association Convention, which ran from April 23-25.
Nebraska is known in the auctioneering industry for producing many national and world champions.
Weston Hottell, 17, from Kimball, competed against other auctioneers at the contest.
“As a kid in Nebraska, there’s not much to do, so you spend enough time around sale barns and I’ve always liked to talk, figured I might as well get paid to do it,” Hottell said.
After going to school to become an auctioneer, Hottell opened his own auction company, Hottell Auctions, last September.
Brant Pavel, an auctioneer from Chambers, said Nebraska has a strong reputation in the industry.
“I believe at one point, Nebraska had the most world champion auctioneers of any state,” Pavel said.
Clay Schaardt, vice president of the Nebraska Auctioneers Association, said competitors are judged on multiple criteria.
“The auction competitors are judged on speed, rhythm, and clarity of their chant. They’re also judged on their appearance,” Schaardt said.
The competition featured five bid-calling participants and 12 ringman participants.
During the first round, the crowd bids from the seats and watches the auctioneers provide two items to sell. The association provides the third item. After the top 10 are selected, the rest are sequestered while they each answer two questions about auctioneering.
William Yokel, an auctioneer from Friend, said the interview portion is critical. One of the questions was, “In your opinion, what is the difference between a good auctioneer and a great one?”
In response, Yokel said, “integrity” makes all the difference.
“Doing the auction chant, only 5% of the job. And the other 95%, it’s, do you know what item you’re selling? Do you know who you’re working for?” Yokel said.
After the interview portion, Pavel said the ringman competition adds to the experience.
“It makes you want to bid again when somebody looks at you and say, you’re out. Peer pressure, it gets you, it gets me,” Pavel said.
Schaardt said this sense of urgency is felt more intensely during live auctions.
“There are a lot of online auctions and more and more the online auction world has really taken off. And I would say a lot of our members use online auctions,” Schaardt said.
But Schaardt said the traditional auction format still has value.
“For example, there’s a lot of emotion connected to real estate and you cannot- you really can’t get that emotion out, you know, if you’re doing it online only,” Schaardt said.
At the end of the competition, Hottell was crowned rookie of the year, Pavel won the ringman competition and Yokel won the bid-calling contest.
“The auction chant made me smile and I just said to myself one day that I’m going to make people smile just like they did to me and here we are,” Yokel said.
Kaden Schow of Schow Auction Service/Schow Realty in Paxton was named reserve champion auctioneer. Jace McKay of JW Auctions in Ericson was named runner-up auctioneer.
The top 10 finalists were Mike Harris, Westen Hottell, Jace McKay, Jacob Ogan, Clay Patton, Brant Pavel, Randall Pelster, Jim Pursell, Kaden Schow and William Yokel.
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Copyright 2026 KOLN. All rights reserved.
Former University of Nebraska President Ted Carter tried to get a job at NU for a woman he later admitted he was having an “inappropriate relationship” with, according to a records request obtained Wednesday by Nebraska Public Media News.
Carter last month resigned from his position as Ohio State University president, which he held since January 2024, because of “an inappropriate relationship with someone seeking public resources to support her personal business.” Carter abruptly left for OSU after leading NU from 2020 to 2023.
Records made available by NU show that in April 2023, Carter requested the same woman, who has been identified as podcaster Krisanthe Vlachos, be considered for a position at the National Strategic Research Institute that operates for the NU system in Omaha. University leaders told Nebraska Public Media News last week that they would review internal records after the OSU report was published.
NU emails show Carter sent Vlachos’ resume to Rick Evans, executive director of the National Strategic Research Institute and a retired major general in the U.S. Air Force. Evans responded, saying “her skills are probably best aligned to the Contracts and Business Operations Coordinator position you approved us to hire.”
He went on to say the position would be based in Omaha, and thanked Carter for the tip. Carter responded that he believed Vlachos “is more than willing to relocate to Omaha.” It’s not known if Vlachos was ever considered for that job or any other one at NU.
Carter also forwarded Vlachos’ resume to a member of the University of Nebraska Foundation on May 10, 2023.
The next time there was email communication between Carter and Vlachos via the university email system was July 2023. It was a quick note from Carter saying, “Sorry to be out of touch for a bit.” He then gave his phone number, which was redacted.
The university said in a statement that it does not see the need for further review.
“The University of Nebraska has reviewed emails and other records potentially relevant to the report released by the Ohio State University earlier this month,” the statement said. “From this review, several emails were discovered and have been shared upon request from media. The university does not see need for further review at this time.”
Carter appeared to have first met Vlachos while at NU during a Veterans in Energy forum in Washington, D.C. in March 2023, the OSU report said. The report further details that while at OSU, Vlachos had “extraordinary access” to Carter, including at least 24 meetings with him and five trips together.
The report also said at least 14 OSU employees received direct requests from Carter to assist Vlachos. One employee who did help was Chris Kabourek, former NU chief financial officer and former NU interim president.
Kabourek had left NU for Ohio State in the fall of 2024. Kabourek resigned earlier this month and has since been hired as vice president and chief financial officer at West Virginia University.
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