On Oct. 14, 2025, Civic Nebraska released the following statement in response to the announcement of a pair of regressive ballot initiative efforts that would damage our state’s elections and silence a significant portion of the state’s voters.

Today, a group proposed a pair of 2026 ballot initiatives – one to hand-count every ballot in Nebraska, and another to dismantle our state’s split Electoral College system. These are part of a familiar campaign to exert partisan control over how Nebraskans vote and how our votes are counted. Both are reckless, unnecessary, and fundamentally un-Nebraskan, and both should be roundly rejected.

Requiring hand-counting of ballots would dismantle a secure and proven system in favor of one that is slow and prone to error, simply to address conspiracy theories that have been repeatedly debunked. It would waste taxpayer money, invite chaos, corruption, and human error, and undermine trust in the very elections it claims to protect.

Second, this latest effort to force Nebraska into a winner-take-all Electoral College system merely continues to attempt to silence nearly a half-million Nebraska voters. Nothing has changed: Our split-vote system works. It ensures that Nebraskans in every region have a voice in presidential elections. Winner-take-all would erase that.

Nebraskans value fairness, integrity, and common sense. We take pride in doing things our own way, from our one-house Legislature to our split-vote system. These are symbols of balance and independence that have served us well for generations. Our elections belong to all of us, not just those who seek to consolidate power by rigging our systems.

We’re confident that Nebraskans will see these proposals for what they are: partisan schemes that would make our elections less secure, less fair, and less reflective of the people. For more information, visit our information page.