Political observers’ attention on Election Night, and the long hours since then, has been on the paths to 270 electoral votes for President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on their quest to secure the White House.

But Nebraska’s statewide races and local contests in Douglas and Sarpy counties offer a wealth of observations and glimpses into the minds of voters.

Despite voters in Omaha and much of Sarpy County outside of Bellevue choosing to give their support to Biden, the 2nd District will return Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican, for a third term. He defeated progressive challenger Kara Eastman, a Democrat, The outcome suggests that some Republicans backed Biden and that some Democrats backed Bacon.

Notably, Bacon received the public backing of former Rep. Brad Ashford, who lost to Bacon in 2016 and 2018. Ashford is a Democrat but has been an independent and a Republican at various points in the past. His wife, Ann Ashford, challenged Eastman in the primary and didn’t endorse anyone for the general election.

“Joe Biden and Don Bacon are the best choice to break shackles of divisive partisanship and find bipartisan solutions,” Brad Ashford said in an Oct. 8 tweet.

According to unofficial results Thursday morning, Eastman had about a 900-vote advantage in Douglas County – where Libertarian candidates Tyler Schaeffer netted over 7,500 votes. Eastman had significantly less support in the Papillion and Gretna suburbs, where Bacon brought home more than a 16,000-vote advantage.

Legislature

Two incumbents lost their races to remain in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature.

Democrat Jen Day appears to have defeated state Sen. Andrew La Grone of Grenta, a Republican who was appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts in 2018.

Democrat state Sen. Dan Quick of Grand Island lost a challenge to Ray Aguilar, a former Republican state senator.

Also returning to the Legislature are Mike Flood, a Republican former speaker who was uncontested, and Rich Pahls, a Republican Omaha city council member.

Ernie Chambers, who couldn’t seek reelection because he was term-limited for a second time, backed Terrell McKinney, who was victorious over Fred Conley to represent North Omaha.

John Cavanaugh won the race to replace Sara Howard over Marque Snow. The Democrat will join his sister, state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, in the Unicameral.

In Sarpy County, a close race ended with Democrat Carol Blood hanging onto her seat. Rita Sanders, a former Republican mayor of Bellevue, defeated retired teacher Democrat Susan Hester to replace Sue Crawford, a Democrat.

The new makeup of the Legislature appears to be 32 Republicans and 17 Democrats, according to an analysis by NET. That is a shift from last session’s makeup of 30 Republicans, 18 Democrats and Chambers, a Democratic-leaning independent. Had Republicans carried one more seat, they would have secured a supermajority of 33 members, allowing for party-line cloture votes.

Douglas County

Incumbent Dan Esch, a Democrat, held off a strong challenge from Republican Scott Petersen to remain Douglas County clerk. Esch had 133,452 votes as of the Thursday morning tally, while Petersen recorded 113,938.

Democrats Mike Boyle and Chris Rogers will return to the Douglas County Board of Commissioners.

Maureen Boyle, daughter of Mike Boyle, also won the contest against Tim Lonergan to replace Marc Kraft on the county board.

Republican Mike Friend will take over the seat of Clare Duda, whom Friend defeated in the GOP primary, after overcoming Democratic candidate Jo Giles.

Tom Riley, a Democrat, was unopposed for another term as Douglas County public defender.

Sarpy County

Republicans Don Kelly, Angi Burmeister and Gary Mixan will return to the Sarpy County Board of Commissioners.

Thomas P. Strigenz, a Republican, was unopposed for reelection as Sarpy County public defender.

New Mayors

Gretna, Valley and Bennington will soon have new mayors.

Mike Evans, a Republican, defeated Democrat Angie Lauritsen to become Gretna’s next mayor.

Cindy Grove, a Republican, overcame a challenge from independent Steve Peoples to become Valley’s next mayor.

Gretna Mayor Jim Timmerman, Valley Mayor Carroll Smith both opted to not seek reelection.

Zac Johns, a member of the Bennington City Council, also won an uncontested race to become Bennington’s next mayor.

Ralston Mayor Don Grosser and La Vista Mayor Doug Kindig both secured reelection.

Bellevue Council

Jerry McCaw appears to be the last at-large member of the Bellevue City Council, after he defeated Todd A. Santoro for the seat.

Bellevue voters overwhelmingly approved the elimination of the at-large seat, replacing it with a sixth council ward. The change will take place in two years for the 2022 election cycle.

Grenta School Bond

Voters gave their approval to a $258 million bond for the Gretna Public Schools that will pay for a second high school, a middle school and an elementary school.

Unofficial results from Douglas and Sarpy counties had the bond tally at 8,416 to 5,468, representing a little over 60% approval.

The bond will also cover costs for an indoor competition pool that will be available for community use and other improvements.

The new high school at 180th Street and Cornhusker Road is expected to open in fall 2023. The city’s eighth elementary is slated to open in 2024, followed the next year by its third middle school.

Public Service Commission

Crystal Rhoades, former chair of the Douglas County Democratic Party, defeated Republican challenger Tim Davis to retain her seat on the Nebraska Public Service Commission. Rhoades is the incumbent for District 2.

Republican Patrick Bonnett has an apparent victory over Democrat Tyler Berzina in a tight race for an open seat on the board of the Papillion-Missouri River Natural Resource District. Berzina was up 15,501 to 15,677 in unofficial results Thursday morning, just over a half percentage point.

Mark Gruenewald, the current representative of District 9, made an unsuccessful bid for the Legislature during the primary. District 9 spans the northwest corner of Sarpy County as well as a portion of south-central Douglas County.

Judicial Retention

All 48 judges in the state facing a retention vote prevailed by comfortable margins, with many earning “yes” responses from about three-fourths of the electorate.

A survey of Nebraska State Bar Association membership recommended retention for all the judges who faced voters this cycle.

Slavery

Voters clearly favored the passage of Amendment 1, which prohibits the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment under the state constitution.

The punishment had been explicitly permitted in Article I-2 of the Nebraska Constitution, despite the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting slavery.

State Sen. Justin Wayne, who was unopposed for reelection, had pushed to adopt the change. It won 68% support from voters.

However, some people have expressed dismay over the nearly 32% of Nebraskans – more than 274,000 of them – who opposed the constitutional amendment.

The amendment failed in 26 Nebraska counties: Arthur, Banner, Blaine, Boyd, Cherry, Custer, Dundy, Frontier, Garfield, Grant, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Holt, Keya Paha, Logan, Loup, McPherson, Morrill, Perkins, Pierce, Rock, Sheridan, Sioux, Thomas and Wheeler. Additionally, it won only narrow support in a handful of other counties.

While urban counties certainly boosted the amendment’s support, a Daily Record analysis of unofficial results shows that the measure would still have passed with over 57% support if the state discounted the vote from Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties.

Another constitutional amendment on the ballot, which extended the maximum time for tax-increment financing to 15 years, was also approved by 61% of voters. Support was more evenly distributed, with 10 counties rejecting it. Several counties saw narrow defeats or victories, including by only 1 vote in both Grant County, where it was opposed 165-164, and Logan County, where it was favored 187-186.

Payday Lending

Support for limitations on payday lending won overwhelming support, exceeding 82% in unofficial statewide results.

Initiative Measure 428 received a solid victory in each of Nebraska’s 93 counties.

Payday lending will be limited to a maximum an annual percentage rate of 36%. Supporters of the initiative say an average payday loan had been about 404% APR – with some as high as 460% APR.

“Nebraska voters have confirmed that they want to end these predatory rates,” Kate Wolfe, campaign manager for Nebraskans for Responsible Lending, said in a Tuesday news release.

Nebraska joined 16 states and the District of Columbia in having a cap set at about 36% APR.

Gambling

Despite a strong push by Ricketts, former Rep. Tom Osborne and other high-profile opponents, voters clearly favored a trio of ballot measures to legalize casino gambling at the state’s racetracks.

The measures were backed by voters in Adams, Dakota, Douglas, Hall, Lancaster and Platte counties, where the state’s racetracks are situated. Opponents of the measure say casino gambling will spread to other places, either through new racetracks or casinos built by Native American tribes.

Counting Continues

As of press time, Sarpy County planned to share updated results last Friday, which included uncounted early ballots, day-of ballots and provisional ballots. There were 1,018 provisional ballots cast in the county.

Douglas County also planned to share updated results last Friday that would include early voting ballots returned on Election Day Accepted provisional ballots and remaining early ballots will be counted Nov. 16.

Officials held off counting some early ballots that required additional research before they could be accepted or rejected. A Douglas County media guide says those could have questionable signatures or be from voters who requested a ballot in person the same day they registered to vote but couldn’t verify their address.

The Sarpy County Election Commission closed its doors to the public Thursday after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

Recounts could also be requested or required. Statewide, as of Wednesday, four races could see automatic recounts – including a race separated by two votes.

Candidates separated by more than a 1% threshold can request a recount at their own expense. If a race is under 1% difference, the state will pay for a recount.

The Nebraska Board of State Canvassers meets Nov. 30 to certify election results.

Additionally, officials need to manually count about 60,000 write-in – about 7% of the total vote cast – cast in the U.S. Senate race, said Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said. The state Democratic Party had organized a write-in campaign for Preston Love Jr. after its scandal-plagued candidate, Chris Janicek, refused to drop out of the race.

Future Changes

Evnen suggested at a news conference Friday that the surge in early voting this election might merit more scrutiny in the future.

“Early balloting will require concerted attention, to be sure, going forward,” Evnen said.

More than 25,000 early ballots sent to voters at their request were not returned by voters, he said.

“What happened to those ballots? We don’t know,” he said. “Twenty-five thousand ballots is not an insignificant number.”

Evnen said he’s concerned that those early ballots may not have reached voters or that “something else” may have happened to them.

“When you go to the polls, your ballot is under your control at all times,” Evnen said. “When we mail ballots out to people, as soon as we put them in the mail, we lose control of them. And if we’re going to have an increased percentage of voters who are choosing to vote early, then we ought to take a concerted look at how we assure that those ballots are cast in a secure way.”

Evnen said he’s looking at different options, but that he doesn’t have any to suggest at this time.

Additionally, with Biden’s victory in the 2nd Congressional District – once again awarding a Democrat a vote in the Electoral College, as President Barack Obama received in 2008 – it is likely that changing how the state’s electoral votes are awarded will stay a priority for the Nebraska Republican Party.

The Omaha World-Herald reported that state GOP lawmakers have tried at least 16 times to return the state to a winner-take-all system since the proportional system was adopted in 1991.

Trump made an appearance in Omaha on Oct. 27, and high-level surrogates also made stops in the 2nd District during the campaign. Supporters of Nebraska’s system say the state wouldn’t have received the attention it did if the 2nd District’s vote wasn’t in play.