Nebraska’s top election official- Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen- had no authority to strip voting rights from people convicted of a felony, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision that could add hundreds of new voters to the rolls and potentially help tip the balance on Nov. 5.
The order by Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen could have kept 7,000 or more Nebraskans from voting in the upcoming election, the American Civil Liberties Union said. Many reside in Nebraska’s Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District, where both the presidency and the makeup of Congress could be at stake.
Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by more than 13,000 following a 2021 redrawing of the boundaries. But the district also has nearly 114,000 independent and third-party voters. In 2020, Biden bested former President Donald Trump there by more than 22,000 votes.
Nebraska is heavily Republican overall but is one of two states — the other being Maine — that apportions its Electoral College votes by congressional district. The Omaha-area district has twice awarded its one vote to Democratic presidential candidates — to Barack Obama in 2008 and again to Joe Biden in 2020. In a 2024 presidential race shown by polling to be a dead heat, a single electoral vote could be decisive.