Voters have early say under new rules

COLUMBUS -- Janice Nelson of Genoa took advantage of the early voting option last week to cast her vote in the upcoming presidential election.

A total of 478 early ballots had been issued by 1:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

“I was in town for a meeting and decided it was a good time to vote,” Nelson said. “I think it’s a privilege to be able to vote and it’s an important thing that we can do for our country.”

Nelson said she has voted in every election since she was old enough to vote.

Platte County Election Commissioner, Diane Olmer said this number of early ballots issued at this time in the election process is not an unusually high number for a presidential election.

Early voting began Sept. 29 in Platte County and across the state.

Olmer said there was a time when the voter needed a reason to cast their vote early. She said this is not longer the case.

“It used to be that you had to have a reason to do so (vote early or absentee),” Olmer said. “Now, it is considered a convenience for the voter (a way) to encourage people to vote.”

Olmer noted there are three ways to cast an early vote in this year’s presidential election.

Platte County voters can vote in the election commissioner’s office on the third floor of the Platte County Courthouse now through Nov. 3, or a ballot can be sent to the voter or picked up from the office.

“In order for my office to have time to send an early ballot in the mail, the written request for an early ballot must be in this office no later than 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29,” Olmer said.

Olmer said she expects voter registrations and early voting to increase following the televised vice presidential debates.

“Usually anything about the election that is highly publicized gets voters anxious to be part of the election process,” Olmer said. “Since we have a presidential election, and the polls are really close on the predicted outcome, people want to vote and so I expect a very good voter turnout. I do not predict in exact numbers.”

She said her office is seeing significant interest in getting registered and the early voting process by young voters and first time voters.

“We are seeing a lot of interest in registering to vote and early voting with young voters, but I do not want to speculate on if this is greater or lesser than past years,” she said. Olmer said her advice for voters is, “ Don’t procrastinate.”

“If you have made up your mind on how you want to vote, get it done to avoid lines in the election office,” Olmer said. “If voting at the polls, try to avoid peak times of the day. But by all means ‘be a voter.’”

The total number of registered voters in Platte County as of 8 a.m. Friday, 10.3 was 19,660 compared with 20,226 in 2004.

“The total number in 2004 is probably greater than the total number today because of better ways to clean up the list and delete non-residents to the county,” Olmer said.

In 2005 all election commissioner’s offices in Nebraska’s 93 counties were linked making this year’s registration list much more accurate than in the 20004 election.

“When we got linked by computer through the state in 2005, it made it possible for each county to remove residents from their lists as people moved from county to county,” Olmer said.

Olmer said the secretary of state also sends a list of names to be removed when an individual surrenders their driver’s license when they move out of state.