Civic Nebraska Field Director Talks Primary Voting

Brad Sallis, Voting Rights Field Director at Civic Nebraska

By Jeff Turner

With the Coronavirus pandemic still at large – concern about the safety of polling places has been a divisive issue, in Wisconsin Republicans resisted delaying the primary election when Democrats voiced concern about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; and recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared California a “vote by mail” state in an executive order, meaning that every resident of California is guaranteed to have a ballot mailed to them. California is one of five states that has implemented a policy like this.​​

​​​In Nebraska, polling places will remain open for the May 12th primary – although nothing is left to be decided on the Presidential level for either party, plenty of local races including Senate, House and Legislature remain up in the air. Brad Christian-Sallis, Voting Rights Field Director for Civic Nebraska spoke some on measures the organization has taken to make voting safer in a post-COVID landscape.

 ​​​​​​​​Civic Nebraska is nonprofit organization based in Lincoln that specializes in voting rights initiative and election reform through community organizing.​​​​“We’ve been encouraging people to vote by mail, but we will still help anyone who misses the deadline. We’ve been sending election observers over to polling places to identify potential barriers people might face when voting,” said Christian-Sallis. An election observer operates as a third party observing how a state government conducts its elections – and their work starts well before election day, observing the process for months prior. “We still have our election protection hotline up and running for any voter that needs help turning in their ballot.” The number for Civic Nebraska’s election protection hotline is 402-890-5291. ​​​​

Even with COVID-19 raging, Civic Nebraska has been active with Get Out the Vote initiatives. “We’ve had to adjust things slightly due to the pandemic,” Brad Christian-Sallis added, “but we’ve stayed busy. We’ve relied on phone banking to talk to voters who have had issues with their ballots getting rejected and we’ve made good use of social media to distribute voting resources.” Those voting resources are available at www.civicnebraska.vote. ​​​

“Regarding safety for poll workers – every polling place should have a ‘sanitation kit’, provided by the state – this will include gloves, masks, hand sanitizer and wipes for every poll worker and station. Ideally, this will keep everything sanitary and safe for those working the polls,” Christian-Sallis said regarding COVID protections for poll workers on election day.​​When asked about what he wants Nebraska voters to know that they may not know, Brad Christian-Sallis said “ballots have to be received by election day, not mailed – if you think you’re cutting it close you should just take your ballot to a dropbox. I’d also like more people to research local candidates – it can be overwhelming with so many candidates on the ballot.”

​​Nebraskans have turned in almost 400,000 mail-in ballots, as of April the turnout was approaching the highest voter turnout in Nebraska history – the election of 1972 when over 410,000 Nebraskans voted. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen​ said in an interview with the Lincoln Journal-Star that this was an indicator that the laws were “put in place effectively” in the wake of this pandemic.​​​​​​​​​​

Civic Nebraska has an initiative called “Decoding the Ballot” where they go over what the duties of positions like County Commissioner and the Learning Community and the MUD/OPS board and various other local positions entail. The Douglas County polls close at 8 pm central time. 

You can check where your polling place will be votercheck.necvr.ne.gov/voterview by entering in your first and last name and your county of residence.