Decision time

HARTINGTON – With just under a week until election day, nearly 25 percent of Cedar County's eligible voters have already cast ballots.

Cedar County Clerk Jessica Schmit said she mailed out 5,500 ballots on April 24. As of Tuesday morning, more than 1,700 ballots had been received back at the Clerk's office.

'If we double the number of ballots returned in the next week we would beat the voter turnout for the last two primary elections,' Schmit said.

The ballots must be in the County Clerk's office no later than 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 14, in order to be counted, Schmit said.

This marks the first year Nebraska's new Voter ID law is in place, so the voting process is a little different, this year, she said.

Voters have two photo ID options when voting by mail.

The first option is writing your driver’s license or state ID number under the envelope flap in the voter ID section. The privacy flap will shield ID information and the signature and will only be visible to the county election office.

The second option is photocopying an ID and inserting that photocopy into the ballot return envelope along with the ballot.

Voters only need to do one or the other — write their ID number or send a photocopy of the ID — not both, Schmit said.

Acceptable IDs include a Nebraska driver’s license; Nebraska state ID; U.S. passport; military ID; tribal ID; hospital, assisted- living facility or nursing home record; Nebraska college ID; or an ID from a political subdivision. IDs must include name and photo. Expired IDs are accepted.

'For people that don't drive anymore, but still have that old license, this might be a good option,' she said.

If a ballot is returned that is lacking the proper information, it will be set aside and won't be counted until a driver's license or other state approved identification card is provided, Schmit said.

The Cedar County Clerk's office has had to contact some people to inform them they need to provide proper identification, but for the most part, people have not had any problems with the new Voter ID procedures, though, she said.

If someone has submitted a ballot, without proper identification, the voter has until the end of the day on the Tuesday following election day to provide that ID so the ballot can be counted, Schmit said.

She also noted people don't have to put the ballots back into the mail for them to be counted.

'It saves the County money,' Schmit said, 'if people use the drop box outside the Courthouse or hand them to us over the counter.'

With this being her first election as Cedar County Clerk, Schmit said she is 'learning a lot.'

'There are just a lot of situations and scenarios that I haven't seen before, but I think it's going well so far,' she said.

Recently retired Cedar County Clerk Dave Dowling has been helping Schmit.

'He drops by the office just about every day,' she said, adding that Dowling plans to be at the Clerk's office during election night to help Schmit with her first election.