Results are in for Nebraska’s 2024 Primary Election, with the Lancaster County Election office publishing their third and final round of results at 11:15 PM, Tuesday night.
Approximately 2,400 early vote ballots received on election day will be counted at 1:00 PM on Thursday, May 16. All provisional ballots (373 regular and 14 voter identification verification) and all resolution ballots will be counted at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, May 22nd.
Of Lancaster County’s 201,630 registered voters, 15.4% (or 31,054) voted early in 2024’s primary election cycle. Democrats lead Republicans slightly in early voting participation by about 6%. About 1 in 5 Dems (21.5%) voted early compared to about 1 in 6 Republicans (15.5%).
Overall voter turnout was 27.05% for the Nebraska primaries, lighter than the 35% predicted by Secretary of State Bob Evnen.
3,848 (~8%) registered non-partisan voters submit their ballots ahead of time.
Former President Donald Trump enjoyed an unsurprising victory with Lancaster County Republicans, beating out Nikki Haley and Perry Johnson who have since ended their bid for president, but seem to maintain a number of die-hards as Trump continues to cement his prospective Republican Party nomination.
Meanwhile, incumbent President Joe Biden expectedly trounced Minnesota Congressman Dean Philips — who ended his campaign in March — among county voters for the Democratic Party nomination.
Turning to local races, Nebraska’s incumbents Republican shut out challengers with ease.
Senator Deb Fischer finished with 79.85%, with Arron Kowalski — who symbolically ran against the state’s senior senator — still scoring 20.15%. With NE-Dems abstaining from the race for Fischer’s senate seat, she is set up for a head-to-head with Independent candidate Dan Osborn.
Senator Pete Ricketts was able to stave off two challengers with 79.09% of votes. John Glen Weaver came in second with 14.76%, and Mac Stevens in third with 6.15%. Ricketts will now face Democrat Preston Love Jr. who ran in the primary unopposed.
In the 3 US House races, Mike Flood, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith all won their respective races. Flood scored best against his opponent Michael Connely (81.58% to 18.42%), Bacon had the closest race against opponent Dan Frei (61.88% to 38.12%), and Smith with 74.18% over self escribed “MAGA candidate” John Walz (18.57%) and Robert McCuiston (7.24%).
Local State Senate races also found incumbents on top with Beau Ballard in District 21 garnering 55.05% over two opponents. Ballard will face runner up Seth Derner who scored 29.88% over Bryan Paseka’s 15.07%.
Carolyn Bosn in District 25 finished with 56.03%, and will face Nicki Behmer Popp in November who scored 41.01%, pushing out Maher Aurang Zeb who ended at 2.97%.
In west Lincoln’s district 27, Jason Prokop finished over Dawn Liphardt (56.03% to 43.97%) with a rematch set for November.
In the race for State Board of Education District-1, Kristin Christensen debuted with a strong lead over Liz Davids (60.70% to 39.30%) and will also face-off again in November.
As for offices in higher-education, incumbent University of Nebraska Board of Regents member for District-5 Rob Schafer finished strong over two challengers with 55.36%.
The full results summary for Lancaster County’s primary election can be viewed below.
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This story will be updated with live election results
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