Verification on Hall County ballots coming next week

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - It will be next week before provisional ballots impacting a Grand Island school board race are determined to be valid.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Hall County Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet said 67 provisional ballots came from a precinct affecting Ward A of the Grand Island school district. There are many legitimate reasons for a provisional ballot, but before it can be counted it has to be verified. That process can take hours or days.

Overstreet said the deadline for verifying those ballots is next November 18, but she intends to have them finished by early next week.

Only 27 votes separate write-in candidate Amanda Wilson (1,983) and board incumbent Terry Brown (1,956) for the second Ward A seat on the school board.

Here is Overstreet’s full statement regarding the provisional ballots:

“Many Hall County voters, candidates and the media have inquired about the status of the Grand Island Public Schools Ward A school board race results. As stated on the top of the unofficial election night results posted on the Hall County website, there were 181 provisional ballots cast in Hall County on Election Day. Of those 181 provisional ballots, 67 were cast in a precinct that had the GIPS Ward A race on the ballot. “That number of outstanding ballots leaves the GIPS Ward A race results inconclusive at this time because of the narrow margins between candidates,” said Hall County Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet.

“The Hall County Election staff is working diligently to verify the 181 provisional ballots - whether they will be accepted or rejected,” Overstreet said. “Verification can take anywhere from five minutes to several days for each provisional ballot.” Verification depends on whether the provisional ballot was cast by an already registered voter, a new voter, an early voter, a voter from another county, an existing Hall County voter with a simple address update, etc. Work started with provisional ballots that appear to have been cast by voters who recently moved into Hall County from another Nebraska County. Verification on those ballots require contacting the other county to ensure that a ballot wasn’t cast there and many county offices will be closed on Friday for Veterans Day.

Hall County Election staff will be working on Veterans Day and this weekend to continue the work of resolving all provisional ballots cast in the November 8, 2022 General Election.

“Once the determination has been made of which provisional ballots can be accepted, the counting of the actual ballots will take less than one minute,” Overstreet said. “We want timely results as much as anyone, but accuracy is the first and foremost priority.”

Determinations on provisional ballots must be made by Friday, November 18, 2022, according to Nebraska state law. The goal in Hall County is to have determinations made by early next week.

Tracy Overstreet

Hall County Election Commissioner”