In a city election that shattered previous voter turnout records, nearly 3,000 early votes tallied Wednesday widened Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird’s lead over challenger Suzanne Geist by nearly 900 votes.
With those early ballots counted, voter turnout reached 45.7% — well above turnout in any previous city primary or general election.
The previous turnout record was 39% in 1999, when Don Wesely beat Republican City Council member Cindy Johnson, putting a Democrat back in the office after Republican Mike Johanns served most of two terms, though Dale Young finished out the final term after Johanns was elected governor.
Gaylor Baird’s victory Tuesday means the quarter-century streak of having a Democrat as mayor of Lincoln will continue.
Gaylor Baird beat Republican challenger Geist with 54% of the vote to Geist’s 45% — the same margin by which she beat Cyndi Lamm four years ago.
Wednesday’s 2,960 early votes meant Gaylor Baird had 43,984 votes to Geist's 36,417. Geist, a former state senator, resigned to concentrate on the mayoral race.
The early votes did not change the outcome for any other races for City Council, Lincoln Board of Education or Lincoln Airport Authority.
They did widen the lead for the tightest City Council race, giving northeast Lincoln’s District 1 incumbent James Michael Bowers an additional 210-vote lead over two-time challenger Taylor Wyatt. Bowers now leads Wyatt by 1,030 votes.
Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen still needs to count about 700 provisional ballots and any ballots that couldn’t be read by the machines. He expects that to be done Friday.
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The heated mayoral race — with record amounts of money dumped into the campaigns — likely helped increase turnout to 80,760 voters, Wiltgen said.
“The amount of money spent on the mayoral campaigns increased the public’s interest and increased turnout for Republicans, Independents and Democrats,” he said.
During the 1999 mayoral election — the last record turnout when Wesely beat Johnson by a 12 percentage point margin — the candidates also broke spending records.
Wesely said he’s convinced that elections in Lincoln — which has had just two Republican mayors since 1975 (three if you count Dale Young, who finished out Johanns’ term) — are determined by moderate Republicans and Independents.
As of April 30, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats by 2,448, but there are also 41,855 registered non-partisans.
When Wesely ran for mayor, pollsters found 30% of voters were extremely conservative and 40% were very liberal, he recalled. That left the 30% of voters in the middle for candidates to win over to their side.
He doesn’t know what that looks like today but suspects it’s similar.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that in Nebraska and in Lincoln it’s the moderate Republicans that determine the balance of power,” he said. “They are the jury that will decide your fate.”
While Geist’s supporters painted the mayor as an insider who’d let crime skyrocket and property taxes rise, Gaylor Baird said Geist was too extreme for Lincoln, given her voting record in the Legislature supporting issues including abortion, banning gender-affirming care for young people and a constitutional carry bill.
Wesely said he’s talked to those knowledgeable about polling in the race, who told him abortion was a critical issue, and Gaylor Baird’s support of abortion rights would help her.
For many moderate Republican and Independent women, that’s a critical issue, both locally and nationally, he said.
Photos: Scenes from Lincoln's May 2 General Election
Voters from different districts are separated on either side of a board as they cast their votes on Election Day in May at the Auld Pavilion Rec Center in Lincoln.