While players at the national level discuss mail-in voting, staff in the Seward County clerk’s office continue to prepare for a good number of early voting ballot requests this fall.
On Sept. 15, Seward County Election Commissioner Brandy Johnson already had a stack of requests for early voting ballots for November’s general election. The day before, the U.S. Supreme Court had issued an emergency order denying the Trump Administration’s efforts to limit mail-in voting for the 2026 elections.
But Nebraska’s election calendar says Johnson and her staff cannot start mailing those ballots to voters until Sept. 28. Johnson said it will likely take her staff a few days to get them all prepped and out the door at that point.
Voters can request early voting ballots until Nov. 2 – the day before the Nov. 3 election. But Johnson is recommending people who intend to use the U.S. Postal Service to return their ballots mail them at least 10 days before the election.
Early ballot voters may also drop completed ballots off at the clerk’s office or the drop box by the north door to the courthouse. Starting Oct. 5, they can also complete their ballots while in the clerk’s office.
Because of deliberations about ballot initiatives at the state level, the options for voters to vote on were just recently finalized, and election commissioners across Nebraska are awaiting printed ballots before Sept. 28.
Johnson expects Seward County ballots to arrive by then, but it will be a tighter timeline than normal.
With the variety of voting districts that criss cross the county – schools, airports, and other government divisions plus those that are based in other counties – Johnson said there are 74 different versions of the ballot this election.
If a voter requests an early ballot they can only complete that ballot and return it to the clerk’s office. They would not be issued a new ballot at the polls because their record will indicate they have already drawn a ballot.
Voters who have voted by mail for the primary or other elections must request an early ballot if they choose to vote early again, Johnson said.
Ballots are mailed to all county voters only when there is a special, all-mail election.
Some political parties or other organizations may mail out information about early voting, but Johnson said her office sends ballots only to those who have requested them with her office.
She encouraged voters to call her office with any questions about their ballots and voting.
Members of the military, missionaries or others who live abroad but maintain their voting rights in Seward County can register as part of a special group of voters for whom ballots must be mailed by Sept. 18.
Because those ballots are not yet printed, Johnson said they will each be mailed a ballot based on the printing proofs of the ballot. After they are returned, the election commissioner’s staff will “remark” actual ballots for each one submitted in a process that is witnessed by representatives from the local Democratic and Republican parties.
“There is a lot of work that goes into it before those ballots ever leave our office,” Johnson.
There are no changes in how the ballots are received or counted from earlier elections, she said.
The drop box at the courthouse, which is also used by other county offices, is opened only by election commissioner’s staff as soon as early ballots are available.
Voter registration continues through Friday, Oct. 23, which is also the deadline for write-in candidates to file notarized affidavits and their filing fee for their votes to be counted.
