{"id":31234,"date":"2022-01-27T09:40:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T15:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31234"},"modified":"2022-01-27T09:49:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T15:49:31","slug":"bill-would-shorten-early-voting-vote-by-mail-periods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31234","title":{"rendered":"Bill would shorten early voting, vote by mail periods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans would have less time to vote prior to Election Day under a bill heard Jan. 26 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Mike Groene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB785, introduced by Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, would reduce time allowed for early, in-person voting from 30 days to 22 and for voting by mail from 35 days to 22.<\/p>\n

The bill also would allow a voter to appoint an agent to return a marked early voting ballot. Such an agent could do so for no more than two other individuals. A candidate or member of a campaign committee could not serve as an agent unless the individual was acting as an agent for a family member.<\/p>\n

Groene said the bill would enhance election integrity and prevent ballot harvesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBallots shouldn\u2019t be laying around on kitchen tables,\u201d Groene said. \u201cTo get a ballot and fill it out and mail it back in shouldn\u2019t take 35 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in support of LB785.<\/p>\n

Lancaster County Election Commission David Shively testified against the bill. Election participation has increased dramatically since \u201cno-excuse\u201d early voting was adopted in 1999, he said, and voters have grown accustomed to the 35-day limit. He added that mail service has slowed recently, making it more difficult to assure timely delivery of ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting ballots to voters as early as possible allows the voter to receive their ballots and return their ballots without worrying about delays in the postal service,\u201d Shively said.<\/p>\n

Edison McDonald, director of the Arc of Nebraska, also testified in opposition, saying the bill would make voting more difficult, especially for Nebraskans with disabilities.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB785.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans would have less time to vote prior to Election Day under a bill heard Jan. 26 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-31234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-mike-groene"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31240,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31234\/revisions\/31240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}