Secretary of State Bob Evnen warned the Kara Eastman campaign Friday against having campaign workers pick up early ballots from the election office for voters.
But a spokesman said the campaign had done nothing wrong and called the controversy “contrived and false.â€
In a letter to the campaign manager, Evnen said he had been “given to believe†that two field organizers for Eastman’s congressional campaign told other campaign workers that they could offer to serve as voters’ agents and get ballots for them.
Evnen, a Republican, advised that such a practice is illegal under Nebraska law and called for the campaign to “immediately cease and desist†from offering or acting as voter’s agents. He also said he had referred the incident to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation.
“These are serious matters which must be addressed by the Eastman for Congress campaign,†Evnen said.
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Dave Pantos, the Eastman campaign manager, said the Secretary of State’s Office never contacted the campaign to check on the accuracy of the report before releasing the letter to the public.
“Don Bacon and the Nebraska Republican Party are working together to create a fake controversy about our campaign because that is what they do,†he said. “We did absolutely nothing wrong. It would be very easy to look into the matter and see there’s no substance to it.â€
Eastman, a Democrat, is running against Bacon, the Republican incumbent, for the 2nd District congressional seat.
Nebraska law generally allows people to pick up an early ballot on behalf of a voter. But the law specifically prohibits candidates and people serving on a campaign committee from doing so, unless they are family members of the voter. State law also limits people to getting ballots for no more than two voters.
Jim Rogers, executive director for the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the two people named in Evnen’s letter are employed by the party and are not on the Eastman for Congress campaign committee. Therefore, they are not prohibited from picking up ballots for voters.
Nebraska law sets no limits on the reverse practice, which is sometimes called ballot harvesting. Anyone can collect ballots from voters and take them to the election office. In one recent example, the Nebraska Republican Party had boxes available to collect ballots from participants in Tuesday night’s rally with President Donald Trump.
State GOP leaders said the Eastman incident raised “serious election integrity questions†and called for her to answer about whether she “knew her staff was engaging in illegal activity†or whether she had ordered them to do so.
“If the answer to either question is yes, she must immediately withdraw from the race and turn herself in to the proper authorities,†said Ryan Hamilton, executive director of the state GOP.
Evnen said the incident occurred during a Thursday afternoon online meeting. He alleged that one of the campaign workers told others they could only pick up two ballots at one time but could return multiple times to pick up ballots for other voters.
The 2020 Journal Star general election Voter's Guide
Your guide to Lincoln-area and statewide races and ballot questions that will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Click on a race name to see the candidates and learn about their views on the issues.
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View the Voter's Guide as it appeared in the Journal Star print edition.