Local voter turnout best in decades

McCOOK, Neb. -- Red Willow County voters turned out in force for Tuesday's General Election, leading to lines at polling places not seen in the last 20 to 25 years, according to county election officials.

In years past, Red Willow County voting lines typically only occurred during lunch hours, according to County Clerk Tami Teel. She said polling places all over Red Willow County were experiencing lines of voters Tuesday and many starting at 8 a.m. in the morning.

The end result was a 71.5 percent voter turnout with 5,172 ballots cast out of 7,298 registered voters. Tuesday's turnout was nearly double the 40 percent voter turnout of the Hillcrest Nursing Home related special election coordinated in September. The special election was praised at the time for its all mail-in ballot format increasing voter turnout to more than 40 percent.

The number of Red Willow County absentee and early ballots cast was also at record high levels. 1029 absentee ballots were counted, the most ever according to the clerk's office.

The previous high was 892 absentee ballots cast in 2008.

Red Willow County voters overwhelming supported Donald Trump for president, who received 82 percent of the votes according to unofficial results. Trump collected 4,212 votes, with Hillary Clinton receiving 638, Gary Johnson receiving 185, Jill Stein receiving 26, and 55 votes cast for write-in candidates.

Red Willow County voters supported reinstating Nebraska's death penalty by more than a two-to-one margin. 3,306 votes were cast to repeal legislation preventing the reinstatement of the death penalty, with 1,599 cast to retain the legislation.

The Red Willow County Canvassing Board will count 57 provisional ballots on Wednesday and Thursday.