Brittany Loffelholz voted Tuesday with newfound hope her pick for president might survive the primary election.
She and her husband, Justin, marked their ballots for Republican Ted Cruz at Schoo Middle School hours after the U.S. senator from Texas hinted he'd consider re-entering the GOP fray if he emerged victorious from Nebraska's primary, they said.
"I was still going to vote whether the person I wanted was on there or not," Brittany Loffelholz said. "I just hope my vote counts, I guess."
But when polls closed, Donald Trump, the New York billionaire and presumptive Republican nominee, had achieved a landslide win in Nebraska and stifled hope of a Cruz comeback.
Trump was effectively the last man standing after Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich stepped out of the Republican fray last week. Those moves diminished what could have been a rare barn burner for GOP voters in Nebraska's presidential primary.
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"I think it really deflated the turnout," said John Paul Sabby, chairman of the Lancaster County GOP.
Unofficial final results showed about 30 percent of registered voters completed ballots in Lancaster County. Statewide turnout numbers weren't yet available.
Still, local politicos expected a more dramatic night.
"A few weeks ago, we thought it was going to look a lot different," said Neva Winkle, chairwoman of the Lancaster County Young Democrats.
About 9 p.m., she and about 75 local Democrats gathered to watch Election Night returns in the basement of Brewsky's in the Haymarket, 201 N. Eighth St.
And Sabby, the GOP chairman, joined a crowd of about two-dozen people at a wine tasting in the Talon Room, 230 N. 12th St. The party, hosted by the Lincoln Independent Business Association, was among a few Republican-heavy events in the county.
Earlier in the day, voting took place without reports of major glitches.
There was some confusion at polling places in the state about ballots for nonpartisan voters and the amount of information poll workers were allowed to provide, said Bri McLarty, director of voting rights for the nonprofit Nebraskans for Civics Reform.
"What's great is the poll workers are trying to reach out and get the right answer," McLarty said.
At Lincoln's First Presbyterian Church, 15 people had voted in the first 45 minutes Tuesday, which poll worker Agnes Masek called "about right." She's run things at the 17th and F streets polling place since the 1980s, and predicted about 150 of the precinct's 1,339 registered voters would show up by day's end.
By contrast, turnout was huge in November 2004, when Lincoln voters weighed in on a presidential general election and ballot initiatives on expanded gambling, banning smoking in all Lincoln workplaces and contributing more state lottery funds to the Nebraska State Fair.
"We had 'em sitting on the steps voting," Masek recalled.
