Nebraska’s Election Transparency Erosion: Administrative Expansions and Barriers to Scrutiny Under Secretary Bob Evnen

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR By Stan Roberts

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen leveraged existing law and administrative authority during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to significantly expand access to mail-in voting. Building on the 1999 no-excuse absentee voting statute (LB 571), Evnen directed his office to automatically mail ballot request applications to nearly every registered voter for both the primary and general elections. This was not required by statute — no-excuse absentee voting remains permissive, with voters still needing to request and return ballots — but the proactive outreach dramatically increased usage.

Eleven small counties (population under 10,000) voluntarily adopted all-mail elections under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 32-960, with Secretary approval. These choices are optional and county-initiated, not mandated. No state law requires automatic ballot mailing or forces mail-in/early voting statewide.

While expanding convenience, Evnen’s office has faced criticism for actions and inactions that have narrowed meaningful citizen oversight and independent verification of results. Post-election audits in Nebraska are conducted at the Secretary’s discretion: a limited sample of precincts undergoes hand counts of select races for comparison to machine totals. Counties retain paper ballots, but full manual recounts or comprehensive audits remain limited unless triggered by specific issues.

A key transparency concern involves Cast Vote Records (CVRs) — detailed electronic records of how tabulators interpreted each ballot. Nebraska counties, often using ES&S systems, frequently do not produce or retain accessible CVRs, responding to public records requests with claims that no such record exists or was generated. This limits forensic analysis of tabulation data beyond aggregated totals.

Nebraska’s reliance on a statewide master contract with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) has centralized control. Counties use equipment selected and contracted at the state level rather than through fully independent local procurement. State-level master contracts have effectively demoted county officials from independent decision-makers to mere stewards of proprietary systems, forced to manage equipment and vendors they did not choose and cannot fully audit. Proprietary software and limited access to source code or detailed machine logs further constrain independent review.

Evnen has emphasized election security through measures like photo ID (voter-approved in 2022), voter roll maintenance, and resistance to private funding of elections. However, critics highlight resistance to deeper scrutiny, including limited machine inspections and constraints on broader auditability.

An incoming Secretary of State Scott Petersen would retain significant unilateral discretion in areas Evnen exercised, such as whether to continue mass-mailing ballot request forms, approving (or denying) new all-mail county applications, issuing guidance on procedures, overseeing the scope and depth of discretionary audits, and directing policies on Cast Vote Records production and machine transparency.

Nebraskans value both accessible voting and verifiable results. Administrative expansions that boost participation should not come at the expense of robust, independent auditability. Greater transparency including routine CVR availability, fuller machine inspections, restored county-level autonomy over equipment, and stronger hand-count verification options would strengthen public confidence.

For these reasons, Nebraskans should vote for Scott Petersen for Secretary of State in the May 12, 2026 Republican primary.