The Douglas County Election Commission recently opened the doors to its new west Omaha office that provides more space and parking in advance of the 2020 election cycle.

The commission’s new office has three more customer service stations, a new 6,000-square-foot basement that eliminates the need for off-site storage, two conference and training rooms – named Freedom and Democracy, respectively – and more than four times as much parking.

Previously, employees had to park several blocks away and walk down dark streets during busy election seasons, said Election Commissioner Brian Kruse. Many voters also had to trek into the office on busy days.

“There was one way in and one way out, and the neighbors always lovingly hated us during election time,” Kruse said. 

The new location at 12220 West Center Road has a 10-year lease, approved by the Douglas County Board of Commissioners in February, with an option for two possible five-year extensions. The commission’s old office was at 225 N. 115th St. – just about 2 miles away from the new facility.

Kruse said it was important to choose a location that’s accessible from all parts of the county, which includes Omaha, Ralston, Bennington, Boys Town, Valley and Waterloo, especially by public transportation. 

The commission considered locations between Maple Street and West Center Road between 72nd Street and 120th Street. Kruse said the commission studies how long it would take to reach the new office from various locations in north and south Omaha.

“The time to get here as opposed to our other location was within a couple minutes of each other,” Kruse said. “The physical center of the county is 156th Street, but this is the center population-wise.”

Kruse initiated conversations about moving the Election Commission to a new location just over three years ago. The commission needed more physical space to process requests for early voting, with 95,000 such requests made for the 2016 general election and an anticipated 100,000 requests in 2020.

The commission also takes on about 30 full-time temporary employees to support its work during elections, in addition to 13 permanent full-time employees. The new building has more space for those temporary workers, and Kruse said that the commission might take on up to 12 more temporary workers going forward to improve efficiency.

Some of those temporary employees were also called in recently to process thousands of registrations submitted when Facebook did a voter registration push about a month ago. Douglas County currently is at an all-time high for registered voters at around 353,600.

Kruse said multiple security measures are in place to protect voters’ ballots. 

“Nebraska has always been a paper ballot state,” he said. “We strongly believe that’s the gold standard. There have been other states that have gone digital that have actually moved back to paper ballots.”

Kruse added that the commission’s counting machines are never hooked to each other or to the internet – reducing the risk of tampering by outside actors.

“It’s almost impossible to hack a paper ballot,” he said. 

The commission hopes to have new counting machines in place by next May’s primary. Kruse said the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office is working on that, as well as new accessible voting equipment and machines.

The new election office’s ballot printing and counting room is directly off the lobby and visible to the public through large windows, something Kruse planned to promote transparency.

There are also strict security measures in place for touching those ballots: any time a paper ballot is touched, it is by two people of opposite political parties under the supervision of permanent staff, and the ballot printing and counting room requires both a card swipe and a PIN to enter, creating a record of who has been in the room.

In addition to these measures, the building is equipped with an anti-intrusion system as well as interior and exterior cameras.

The Douglas County Election Commission is not the only new tenant in their building. The east side of the building is being renovated to become The Rose Studio for Youth Artists in 2020, and a hallway that includes public restrooms connects the commission’s lobby to the studio space. Kruse said that the commission’s side is safe, despite this shared access, because its space is protected by access control systems.

Kruse said the commission is almost finished settling into its new home, after opening to the public Oct. 30. He said some audio/visual equipment and computers need installed, but he said the building is already functional.

“It’s a nice new beautiful space, and we’re very excited to have this space moving into next year’s election,” Kruse said. “This is a building that all voters in Douglas County can take great pride in when coming to conduct business and vote in the upcoming elections.”

The Douglas County Election Commission’s office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Find more information at votedouglascounty.com.