BEATRICE – No matter if your candidates won or lost, one thing is certain…Nebraskans turned out to vote, whether by early ballot or on election day.
Gage County registered an over 77-percent turnout figure.

"Very busy. What I was hearing from the calls we were getting it was just one right after the other. I know that I talked with someone from Ward Four (Beatrice) earlier, and they had four hundred and some voters."

Gage County Clerk and Election Commissioner Dawn Hill said she had a feeling that the high participation in early voting would also mean the same would happen on Election Day. In total, 11,201 registered voters in the county ended up casting ballots. Poll locations were set up to maintain a six-foot social distance, and masks were in use.

Poll workers in Adams did have to resolve one problem with a voter showing up wearing a hat that was deemed to be against law that prohibits campaign material at a poll site.

"That's considered electioneering, so any campaigning or campaign material cannot be within two hundred feet of a poll site. That's the same thing here when we were a poll site. I had to watch for people coming in with campaign material." Hill says county elected officials are instructed by the Secretary of State to enforce the rules.

"Ask them if its a cap, to remove it, if its a t-shirt....if you could step back in a restroom or somewhere to turn it inside out. If you have a jacket, zip the jacket to cover it up."

Turnout was high enough, that Hill said some poll locations asked for more ink pens and “I voted” stickers. In surrounding counties, turnout was also very high….

Jefferson County saw over 76-percent of those registering, casting ballots. Saline County reported a 68-percent turnout….Pawnee County, over 76-percent and Johnson County, over 79-percent.

In Gage County, there was a delay in getting the final vote tabulated, due to a technical problem with the automatic ballot counting machine not reading some of the later ballots because of a programming problem. But, the problem was corrected and the final results were issued, near midnight.