OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The dozens of workers at the Douglas County Election Commission have nearly been working non-stop.
“We’re working overtime, we’re working nights and weekends,” says Brian Kruse, Douglas County Election Commissioner.
You understand why when you see the numbers.
For the 2016 primary, there were around 12,000 requests in Douglas County.
In 2018, it went up to 15,000.
This election season over 85,000 people have requested a ballot. That’s more than the total amount of people voting in either 2016 or 2018.
“So that is definitely record setting,” says Kruse.
But Nebraskans will still be allowed to go to the polls May 12th. Governor Pete Ricketts has reaffirmed multiple times that the election will go on.
Over in Sarpy County workers are wearing masks while making sure all that go to any of their 52 precincts remain safe.
“We will be giving each voter their own pen. We will also have the markings for keeping people six feet a part while they wait for their turn to vote,” says Michelle Andahl, Sarpy County Election Commissioner.
Maybe the biggest concern this primary is poll workers, who tend to be older Nebraskans.
In Douglas County 30 percent of them have dropped, in Sarpy it’s 20 percent.
“We will be working very hard, to get those places filled by other volunteers,” says Andahl.
Each precinct needs a minimum of three poll workers, if either county doesn’t get enough, they’d have to close some precincts down.
“We may have to condense and go down to centralized voting locations, meaning we would have to put 2-3 different precincts into one building,” says Andahl.
As of now, that doesn’t seem likely in either county. Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse says let the parents and grandparents sit this election out.
And if you do volunteer, he hopes most vote by mail, and leave the polling places empty.
“I would not be terribly upset if our poll workers read a book, croquet an afghan, do a crossword puzzle, something of that nature for this election,” says Kruse.
