OMAHA — A power outage in central Omaha on Tuesday morning offered some Nebraska voters a “romantic” setting of sorts as they cast their ballot on Election Day. 

At least two polling places were without light and power for less than two hours. Omaha Public Power District officials said power was restored around 10:30 a.m.

One seemed to have sufficient natural lighting, but the other, a Lutheran church at about 60th and Center Streets, had voting booths in the basement and needed a bit of intervention from the Douglas County Election Commissioner’s Office.

Brian Kruse, county election commissioner, said his office sent a runner to the location with several lanterns that helped light pathways to voting booths. 

People were using flashlights on their cell phones. The facility also had some flashlights. 

“That’s a first for me,” Kruse said of the incident. 

OPPD said fewer than 1,000 customers were without power after a private construction crew hit an underground power line near 48th and Leavenworth Streets. No one on the crew was injured.

The area affected was between Dodge and Center Streets, from 60th to 48th Streets, plus University Drive North and Pacific Street from University Drive West to 46th Avenue.

Nebraska Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford was among the voters that marked their ballot in the dark during the power outage.

“Me and some of my neighbors got to vote like it was the 1800s,” he said.

One voter called the lighting “romantic.” Another called it “mood voting.”

Meanwhile, Tuesday marked the first election that, under a new state law, workers checked identification of voters. Kruse said all seemed to be going smoothly on that front so far, with no voter complaints as of midday.

LINCOLN — Nebraskans, check your wallets and purses for a picture ID before heading to the polls on Tuesday.

If you forget, you’ll need to request a provisional ballot at your polling site and follow up with your local election office by the close of business on May 21 to make it count. Or you’ll need to go back before the polls close and try again.

Tuesday is the first statewide election since Nebraska voters approved a requirement that IDs be checked before voting.

Early voting reminders

The 35% to 40% of Nebraskans that Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s office expects to vote early in the primary election already know.

“Nebraska’s polling places will be fully staffed and prepared for voters on Election Day,” Evnen said. “County election offices are ready.”

Early voters had to write down a state ID or driver’s license number or use a copy of an approved ID to request a ballot by mail or vote early in person at their county election office.

Ballots requested by mail must be returned to local county election offices or an official county election drop box by the close of voting at 8 p.m. CT or 7 p.m. MT Tuesday.

People casting early voting ballots can make sure their ballots were counted by checking the Secretary of State’s website at https://www.votercheck.necvr.ne.gov/voterview.

Voting in person

State and local election officials urge patience for the bulk of Nebraskans who still show up to vote in person on Election Day.

Lines could be longer and a little slower at morning and evening rush hours, as poll workers learn to check IDs and as people who came to vote without them adjust.

Voters can use Nebraska driver’s licenses, state IDs, military IDs, college IDs, nursing home or hospital records, tribal IDs, political subdivision IDs or U.S. passports.

Douglas County has added an extra staffer as a greeter at every local polling place this spring whose job is to communicate with people in line and make sure they have the proper ID.

Election rights advocates and both major political parties will be watching how the changes are implemented. Voting advocacy group Civic Nebraska urged Nebraskans who face any problems to call the group’s Voter Help Line at 402-890-5291.

People with questions can also call their county election office at one of the numbers listed here: https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/election-officials-contact-information. Or they can call the Secretary of State’s Office at 402-471-2555.

Few complaints so far

Few complaints have been relayed so far. Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse, who has the largest number of people voting early, about 50% of his expected primary tally, said he had not had one person request to talk to a supervisor to complain.

“We have had over 1,500 people vote (early) in person,” Kruse said. “We’ve had one of the new provisionals where someone forgot their ID. They’ve come back and cured it.”

Steve Smith of Civic Nebraska said his organization has heard about a dozen questions about when and where voters need to write down their state ID number while early voting. Truth is, county election officials check ID info when people request early voting ballots, so they don’t have to write it on the ballot-returning envelope.

People who live in counties and precincts that vote exclusively by mail — 11 whole counties and in parts of 19 others —  will need to write their state ID number on the return envelope.

The state will start posting unofficial election results online starting at 8 p.m. Central or 7 p.m. Mountain at electionresults.nebraska.gov.

The Secretary of State’s Office updates results every five minutes until county election officials call it a night. Nebraska’s counties often finish counting a few days after Election Day, although most results can be determined by the close of business Friday.

OMAHA, Neb. — In one of the most closely watched congressional races this year, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska is looking to defeat a fellow Republican in Tuesday’s primary election in his quest for reelection. He’ll have to do it without the support of the state Republican Party, which has endorsed his primary challenger.

Bacon, whose district includes the state’s largest city of Omaha, isn’t the only one being snubbed. The Nebraska GOP, which was taken over by those loyal to former President Donald Trump during a contentious state convention in 2022, has refused to endorse any of the Republican incumbents who hold all five of the state’s congressional seats.

The state party has endorsed primary challengers to U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Adrian Smith, who represents the state’s vast rural 3rd Congressional District. And it has declined to issue endorsements in the primary races of U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Mike Flood, who represents the 1st Congressional District that includes the state capital of Lincoln. Both Fischer and Flood face primary challengers who entered those races after the Nebraska GOP announced its endorsement decision in January.

It’s an oddity that lays bare the bitter divide between Trump loyalists who control the Nebraska GOP, as well as several county Republican parties, and the more establishment-type Republicans who were previously at the helm, said John Hibbing, a longtime University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor.

“It’s not a good look,” Hibbing said. “You’d like the faces of your party, who would be your elected representatives, and the state party leaders to be on the same page.”

It’s even more perplexing when considering the voting records and campaign rhetoric of the incumbents, he said.

“I think they’re probably wondering: ‘What else can we do?’” Hibbing said. “These are solidly conservative individuals.”

Nowhere is the state party’s rejection more likely to leave a mark than in Bacon’s race. The incumbent faces a challenge from Dan Frei, who bills himself as to the right of Bacon. Frei previously ran for the seat in 2014 and came close to besting then-Rep. Lee Terry in the Republican primary.

Bacon is one of 16 Republican members of Congress representing districts that Democrat Joe Biden carried in 2020.

Nebraska eschewed a winner-take-all system of awarding presidential electoral votes more than 30 years ago and instead allows its electoral votes tied to its three congressional districts to be split. Bacon’s district has seen its elector vote go to a Democratic presidential candidate twice — to Barack Obama in 2008 and to Biden in 2020.

After the state GOP endorsed Frei, Bacon defended his record as “a common-sense conservative who is able to reach across the aisle and find areas of consensus.”

Bacon has said that “it’s sad to see the division in the party,” Danielle Jensen, communications director of the Bacon campaign, said Monday. “I can tell you, he does not think this is going to negatively affect the campaign.”

The campaigns of Fischer, Flood, Ricketts and Smith did not immediately response to messages seeking comment.

The state party said in an email Monday it didn’t endorse any of the Republican incumbents because they didn’t ask. The challengers who got the party’s endorsement did ask, and a vote of the more than 160 elected governing body members of the party gave them that endorsement, said Todd Watson, political director of the state GOP.

Watson denied that the move was solely about Trump, but said most Nebraska Republicans are fed up with what they see as attacks on Trump, the state party’s new direction and “our way of life.”

“What we believe in is the Constitution, conservative principles, and God,” he said.

A former state Republican Party official, Kerry Winterer, excoriated the state party in an opinion piece published in the Nebraska Examiner last week, saying the party’s primary purpose is to elect Republicans but that it has instead become bound solely to Trump.

“A political party bound to one candidate cannot possibly fulfill its purpose of electing candidates that share a common political philosophy,” Winterer wrote.

Watson countered that “the old leadership” of the state GOP has it wrong.

“Objectives of the party are achieved in our mind when we elect constitutional and platform Republicans to office,” he said. “Electing Republicans that are not committed to the objective of the party … to defend the Constitution and advance our principles as stated in our written platform and plans have been a real problem for this party and country.”