Can Nebraska’s secretary of state survive another challenge from the right? (No! Defeated!)

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) - Late last month at the Lancaster County Election Commission, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen observed logic and accuracy testing for ballot-counting machines as part of his “transparency tour” across multiple counties in the state.

Evnen, standing behind half-height voting booths, said every single ballot tabulator in the state is tested three times a month before every election — and that the state will conduct a typical hand-counted audit after the primary election, selecting random precincts to spot check.

He called Nebraska elections the “gold standard,” pointing to a new state law that allows political party members, including from opposing parties, to observe the accuracy test.

“We take a lot of steps in the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office to assure the security of our elections, and we are dedicated to that,” Evnen said.

Part of the reason for Evnen’s more public focus on transparency: His GOP primary opponent in 2026, Omaha businessman Scott Petersen, has criticized the secretary of state for not doing enough to secure the state’s elections, pointing to technology the state uses in its elections and saying that the technology could be tampered with.

Petersen has emphasized questions of whether ballot-counting machines the state uses can access the internet and be hacked. Lancaster County Election officials said the machines cannot access the internet and said the office’s computer used to upload election results is connected only when it is time to upload the data via a flash drive.

Petersen also argues that voting by mail should be restricted, used only military personnel, people with disabilities and people who live far from their polling site, he told the Omaha World-Herald.

Perhaps he IS doing the right things now, but WAS he? He paid the price.

Need to correct this “The machines cannot access the internet and said the office’s computer used to upload election results is connected only when it is time to upload the data via a flash drive.”

As a long time elections official in GA (we use the same model) I can tell you the tabulators (the ballot scanners) indeed do NOT access the internet or any connection after L&A, AND the election office computer IS connected to the internet when results are uploaded from each precinct via a solid state disk drive which is removed from the tabulator when the polls close. This disk drive uploading process is repeated precinct after precinct. This is how one sees XX% of precincts reporting. Said disk drive is not, however, a “flash drive” and should not be called that by a secretary of state.

The disk drive is also read-only when delivered to the elections office for counting.

The security risks are NOT in the machines, the risks lie in WHO gets to vote, and WHO handles absentee ballots and reporting.

Why, in heavan’s name, did you not include the following instead of only implying it?

Scott Petersen won the 2026 Nebraska Republican primary for secretary of state, defeating incumbent Bob Evnen. Petersen secured 54.8% of the vote (93,672 votes) compared to Evnen’s 45.2% (77,395 votes), according to The New York Times’ live results.

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