Today is primary election day with the polls open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm MT. Dawes County is one of 11 where there are no polls and all ballots are by-mail.
       County Clerk Cheryl Feist says any registered voter in the county who hasn’t returned their ballot yet needs to have it in the dedicated 24/7 ballot drop-box on the east side of the courthouse in Chadron by 7:00 tonight.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen predicts voter turnout will be around 35%, an estimate based on early voting and turnout trends in recent primary elections.
Evnen is pleased that in counties that do have in-person voting, more residents have stepped up to serve as poll workers, making county election offices ready so that voters can cast their ballots securely and independently.
This is the first election with the state’s new Voter ID law in place, so Evnen is reminding those casting ballots to have a required form of identification with them – which for most people will be their driver’s license or state ID.
County election offices sent out 155,110 early ballots while another 50,425 went out to voters in Dawes and the other mail-only counties. 125,823 early ballots had been returned as of Friday with another 5,481 voters already casting ballots at their county election offices.