Early voting in person, the highest Douglas County officials have ever seen

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Local election officials say early voter turnout is unlike anything they’ve seen.

Long lines stretch around the Douglas County Board of Elections with people wanting to vote.

“This is the last day to register to vote in this election so you need to be here and in line by 6pm, as long as you are in line we will serve all customers no matter how long it lasts. us tonight, but this is your last opportunity to register to vote for this election,” said Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse.

Many people stand in line to beat the clock. The line started forming before the doors opened here.

“About 7:30, the line starts to form this morning, then around 8, 8:15, it just exploded,” Kruse said.

Kruse told 6 News that so far, more than 80,000 early ballots have been returned.

“We’re down with 2020 early voting by mail, but you have to remember it was COVID,” Kruse said.

Kruse said he didn’t expect so many people to line up to vote before Election Day.

“In-person voting is definitely more than we’ve seen before, much more than we’ve ever seen,” Kruse said. “But I still think we’re going to have 50 percent early voting and 50 percent voting at the polls.”

The staff at the election commission office have been putting in long days, and those days will get longer as we get closer to election day.

“In big presidential elections, we do this as a convenience for voters, especially voters who might not be able to get away from work during normal business hours, and we also do this to try to mitigate, you know , to spread the crowd out so people don’t have to wait as long,” Kruse said.

The Douglas County Board of Elections office will be open on October 26th and November 2nd from 9:00am to 1:00pm for people who like to vote early in person.

Next week, October 29 and 30, the office will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., giving voters extra hours on those days.

The United States Post Office suggests that the last day to get mail-in ballots in your mailbox is October 29.

For more information, you can visit Douglas County Board of Elections websiteor call 402-444-8683.