Poll workers, election commission keep NE ballots secure

Here in Nebraska, your vote is safe, and part of the reason why are poll workers on the front lines of elections.

The election commissioner calls them the heart and soul of Election Day.

“We certainly couldn’t do it without our election poll workers,” Dave Shively, election commissioner said.

One of the 1,100 workers in Lancaster County, Julie Harper, has been doing it for more than 30 years.

“My mother had always done it, so she never really asked me, I just went okay when they asked me to do it too, and that’s where it all started,” Harper said.

Since she started she said not a lot has changed. It’s still paper ballots and number two pencils at polling stations.

Harper said that’s what is helping keep Nebraska’s ballots secure.

“If you don’t come in and vote there’s no other way to vote than an absentee ballot which is double checked,” Harper said. “We weren’t affected as much as states that do electronic ballots.”

Other security measures come back at the Election Commissioner’s Office.

“We added a three pronged approach to get into our voter registration system,” Shively said. “It used to only be two but now you need three passwords to get in.”

Shively said they also upped the security on their internet systems.

But he said, again, the biggest security measures they take come back down to the simple things that happen at the polling stations and in the counting room.

“They’re sealed up when you hand them in, sealed up when they come back to the office to be county, sealed up after they’re counted,” Shively said. “I think we’re in pretty good shape with security issues.”

So you can feel confident in your vote, and in Nebraska’s results.

Something Harper said makes her proud of her state and proud of her family’s history at the polls.

“It’s not just the voting process,” she said. “As it is politics, my family has always been heavy into politics, my mom even ran for legislature back in the day, it’s just what we do!”

To play your own part in keeping elections secure, apply to be an election worker on this website: https://lancaster.ne.gov/election/indexalt.htm