Commissioner race set, early voting popular statewide

McCOOK, Neb. -- Randy Dean received 351 votes to Tim Burke's 217 to represent the Republican Party in the race for the Red Willow County Commissioner District 2 seat. He will face Democrat Delaine Soucie in the fall election.

In another race of interest, Hayes Center voters approved keno on a vote of 47-19.

More than 42% of Red Willow County's 6,830 eligible voters turned out for the election, 2,160 of them voting early and 729 the day of the election.

A sampling of other counties showed 861 of 1,851 registered voters turning out in Frontier County, 686 of them early and a total of 46.5%; 1,172 of 2,451 for 47.8% in Chase County, 856 of them early, and 346 of 704 voters turning out in Hayes County, 293 of them early.

Statewide, Tuesday's primary election saw 471,000 Nebraska voters cast ballots, easily breaking the 38-year-old record of 413,000 votes cast in the 1972 primary, Secretary of State Bob Evnen said.

Even more impressive, Evnen said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference in the Rotunda at the state Capitol, is the circumstances with which the record-breaking total was achieved.

"What is even more remarkable is that Nebraska voters broke the record in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and the serious health threat posed by the coronavirus," he said.

While voting booths across the state were opened, run by poll workers donning personal protective equipment and with guidelines to ensure social distancing, the bulk of the turnout was driven by early voting conducted through the mail.

More than 375,000 voters used the early, vote-by-mail option for the primary -- six times more than did so in 2018, according to Evnen.

On average, only about a quarter of registered voters cast their ballot by mail in Nebraska. Vote-by-mail accounted for 80% of the total ballots cast in the primary.

— The Lincoln Journal Star contributed to this report.