Bob Evnen on Election Integrity, Early Voting, and Foreign Money Funding Ballot Initiatives

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen spoke to the Pachyderm Luncheon on Monday, giving the group a recap of the 2024 election results and outlining some of his biggest concerns regarding election integrity.

Testing the Ballot Counting Machines

In his 2022 race for reelection, Evnen faced two primary challengers, with election integrity in the spotlight, along with concerns about ballot counting machines. Evnen won the Republican primary with a plurality of 43.9% before going on to win the general election uncontested.

In his talk, Evnen emphasized that ballot counting machinery is never connected to the Internet and undergoes multiple rounds of testing both before and after election day. Every machine in the state is tested three times, and there are two mock elections held to ensure that the different elements of the election reporting system are working accurately.

A new bill sponsored by freshman state senator Bob Andersen (LB659) would allow state parties to send representatives to observe these procedures. “This is a bill that I support,” Evnen said. “I think transparency in this process is really important, and I appreciate the fact that Senator Andersen brought it. And I’m hopeful that it will be successful.”

Early Voting: Greatest Threat to Election Integrity

Evnen’s greatest concern for voter integrity comes not from the machinery, but from early voting.

“The threat to the security of our elections comes from early voting, and that’s because early voting is the part of our election process where we have the most potential to abuse the process,” Evnen said. “Now, however, 35% of our voters, 341,000 Nebraska voters, voted early in November 2024. And the difficulty is, there’s just no going back … and what we really have to address is how do we make it as secure as possible.”

Evnen viewed mail-in voting as important for rural counties in Western Nebraska, where it is currently allowed for cities with a population less than 10,000. He opposes a new measure brought by Machaela Cavanaugh to make mail-in voting available in cities state-wide, regardless of size. This bill (LB237) was also opposed by the DCRP at their county meeting on Tuesday.

I asked Evnen about a bill sponsored by state senator Rick Holdcroft (LB541), which would place restrictions on both early voting and mail-in voting.

“I support shortening that period of time. I think that’s important. In every election, you have people come in, they vote really early, and they come in later on, and they say, ‘Can I get my ballot back? Can I change that?’ Well, no. Once you’ve put it in, it’s over.” Evnen sees mail-in voting as important, however, to rural Nebraska, which he referred to as a “Red Sea.”

Foreign Money Funding Ballot Initiatives

Nebraska had an unprecedented number of ballot measures this year, and Evnen expressed concern about the use of “dark money” to fund petition drives to collect signatures for them. “If you have a million dollars, you can buy a ballot position. And the question is, do we want that?” Evnen asked.

Issues like Voter ID, reinstating the death penalty, and medical marijuana have been able to pass by voter referendum when they could not pass in the state legislature. Evnen cited the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which receives money from foreign sources, including George Soros and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. This fund was responsible for funding petitions regarding payday lending in 2020 ($2 million), minimum wage in 2022 ($2.5 million), and paid sick leave in 2024.

“We have had foreign money in our state in ballot measures for the last three cycles. And I want that to end,” Evnen said. “We already have a law that is supposed to have stopped it, but did it? It doesn’t have enough teeth. Is it strong enough? And so Senator [Rita] Sanders is bringing a bill that will address that.” Sanders’ bill, LB244, is pending before the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

New Era under Trump

Evnen also had praise for the newly-reelected President Trump, particularly in his recent dealings with Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejecting plane-loads of migrant criminals being returned to his country.

“When the President of Colombia gets up on his hind legs and turns the planes around, that lasted less than a day. And in less than a day, he sent his own plane to get these people,” Evnen said. He also had high praise for Elon Musk in his role at the new Department of Government Efficiency.

“You have Elon Musk, this boy genius, pitted against the entirety of the federal bureaucracy. Who are you going to bet on in that deal? And my answer is, bet against Elon Musk? That’s a sucker’s bet. I’m going with him.”