Bills introduced in the Nebraska Legislature to increase electoral security
LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska) – During the 2020 presidential election, concerns about fraudulent voting surfaced as more people than usual had to use mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. Three bills in the Nebraska Legislature aim to bolster electoral security.
The three bills are LB457 introduced by Senator Rick Holdcroft, LB193 and LB808 by Senator Steve Halloran.
In summary, the three bills would require all voting machine parts to be manufactured in the United States to reduce the possibility of foreign tampering, implement video recording devices in all voting venues, as well as give counties the ability to recount future legislative tenders by hand instead of machine count.
Supporters have based their arguments on claims of people receiving mail-in ballots who no longer live in the state, as well as the possibility of new technology that could allow unauthorized people to compromise voting machines.
“As long as we have machines in use, in whatever form, we cannot give a 100% guarantee that we will have accurate, total, truthful elections.” said Linda Vermooten, a supporter of all three bills.
Opponents based their claims on the lack of official evidence of intentional voter tampering and that the bills would cost Nebraska taxpayers $16 billion.
“LB457’s video surveillance requirement is another overblown solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Arlo Hettle, an opponent of all three bills. “There is no evidence of fraudulent voting and we don’t need to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on surveillance cameras to catch non-existent criminals.”
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said Nebraska’s elections are fair and reliable.
The Government, Army and Veterans Affairs Committee will decide whether to vote on these bills on the debate floor.
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