Nebraska

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Important Dates

key election dates

October 7, 2024: In-Person Early Voting Begins

More information on early in-person voting >>

October 18, 2024: Voter Registration Deadline

To register to vote or make changes to your registration >>

October 25, 2024: Request to Vote by Mail Deadline

Request to vote by mail >>

October 29, 2024: Last Day to Return Mail-In Ballot

Return your mail-in ballot to your county commissioner. 

Find your county commissioner >>

November 5, 2024: General Election Day

Find your Election Day polling location >>

POLITICAL CONTACT

Felicia Hilton, Political Director of IA/NE/SD

(515) 219-9005 | (515) 491-9293 | fhilton@ncsrcc.org

Download Nebraska Key Election Dates Handout >>

Nebraska Key Election Dates

 

Post Election update

The Nebraska legislative elections went well for us, while we endorsed both democrats and republicans, we didn’t have too many surprises. Nine out of eleven of our endorsed state legislative candidates won their election, except for Jen Day (D) LD49 and Dennis Schardt (R) LD1.

Vice President Kamala Harris won Nebraska’s one electoral vote in Congressional District 2 (CD2).  Each of our endorsed Davis Bacon Republicans, Congressman Don Bacon (CD2) and Senator Deb Fischer won re-election.  They both had very tough challengers, State Senator Tony Vargas ran against Don Bacon, for the second time.  Congressman Bacon could not give his victory speech until the following morning, he defeated Vargas by 9,000 votes.  Dan Osborn Challenged Senator Deb Fischer running as an Independent union leader, the polls had this race as a toss-up all the way to election day.  Senator Fischer defeated Osborn by 50,000 votes.

Voters also approved our key ballot initiative #436 Paid Sick Leave, under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplace Act brought about by the voters, employers with fewer than 20 workers will have to offer at least five days of paid sick leave per year, or one hour for every 30 hours worked.

Employers with 20 or more workers will have to offer at least seven days per year. The law also contains a provision prohibiting employers from taking “retaliatory personnel action” against an employee or former employee because they requested or used paid sick time.

While some close races may not be official for a few days, it appears that 8 incumbent senators have won their elections to return to the legislature, there will be 16 brand new senators, and one returning senator who defeated an incumbent. You can get all election results from the Secretary of State’s Website.

Dan Quick (D-IBEW Retiree) endorsed by us, holds a small lead over Senator Ray Aguilar (R) in the Grand Island area. Senator Aguilar is the current state senator and defeated Dan Quick in the 2020 election. District 3 (Bellevue Area): Victor Rountree (D) holds a small lead over Felix Ungerman (R), we co-endorsed in this race. District 13 (Northern Omaha): we endorsed Ashlei Spivey (D) holds a small lead over Nick Batter (I).

Incumbent senators who will return to the Nebraska Legislature for another four-year term are: John Cavanaugh (D), Terrell McKinney (D), Rob Dover (R) , Beau Ballard (R), Carolyn Bosn (R), Eliot Bostar (D), Kathleen Kauth (R) and Rita Sanders (R).

The partisan breakdown, in the officially non-partisan legislature, should remain very similar to the current Nebraska legislature- 33 R’s, 15 D’s, 1 IND.

2024 Nebraska Legislative Updates

  • The Nebraska Primary Election is coming up, so make your voices heard! When carpenters vote, politicians listen.

    • Primary Election: May 14, 2024
    • Early Voting Begins: April 15, 2024

    Find your voting location by visiting https://www.votercheck.necvr.ne.gov/voterview.

    Nebraskans are now required to show a form of ID to vote. For a list of acceptable forms of photo ID, visit https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/voter-id.

  • The long-awaited revenue package of component parts via LB 388 advanced from the Revenue Committee and is designed to reduce reliance on property taxes. The property tax plan is Governor Pillen’s priority this session and it looks like the tax increases, tax shifts and getting rid of a handful of exemptions will get to roughly $650 million which is significantly less than the Governor’s $1 billion goal. The Governor signed the budget bills without any line-item vetoes.

  • The Carpenters effort to kill LB1170 that cut unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 16 weeks was successful. Senator Merv Riepe’s priority bill died after its initial senate floor debate and after Nebraska members held several one-on-one conversations with legislators during our legislative conference in early March. Thank you to all the members that participated in the conference. Your union activism focused on carpenter economics killed a terrible piece of legislation. Speaker Arch kept his word that the bill would not see the senate floor again.

  • Our bill LB 540 from last session, which amends the Public Letting Statue, was stalled again. We have researched, drafted and secured a commitment from Senator Tony Vargas to continue to move our bill to General File. The bill strategically seeks to ensure that contractors and subcontractors employed on public sector projects more than $500,000 provide proof of workers compensation coverage, a list of subcontractors and provide either direct deposit or check payment with deductions for all trade workers employed. A due process procedure is set to enforce penalties for non-compliance. Unfortunately, our bill did not move out of the Business and Labor committee. We will have to pursue it again next session.

  • The 2024 Nebraska Legislative Conference took place March 5-6. The conference was a great success. Members represented carpenters values with their legislators and heard from guest speakers including Javier Saldana from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and Jake Rodiek from Nebraska Game and Parks.

    Nebraska Day on the Hill