Bills introduced in Nebraska to improve election security

LINCOLN, Neb. (COLOGNE) – Concerns about fraudulent voting have risen during the 2020 presidential election, as more people than usual have been forced to use mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. Three bills in the Nebraska Legislature aim to strengthen election security.

The three bills are LB457 by Senator Rick Holdcroft, LB193 and LB808 by Senator Steve Halloran.

In total, the three bills would require all voting machine parts to be manufactured in the United States to prevent foreign tampering, implement video recording devices at all polling places, and give counties the ability to recount votes in the future. legislative races instead of machine counting.

Supporters based their arguments on claims of people receiving ballots no longer living in the state, as well as the possibility of new technology that would allow unauthorized persons to tamper with voting machines.

“As long as we’re using machines in any way, we can’t be 100% guaranteed that we’re going to have an accurate, comprehensive, genuine election.” said Linda Vermuten, a supporter of all three bills.

Opponents based their claims on the lack of official evidence of intentional voter fraud and the fact that the bills cost Nebraska taxpayers $16 billion.

“LB457’s video surveillance requirement is yet another comprehensive solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Arlo Hettle, an opponent of all three bills. “There is no evidence of fraudulent voting, and we don’t need to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on surveillance cameras to catch criminals who don’t exist.”

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said Nebraska’s elections are fair and credible.

The Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs will decide whether to vote on these bills.

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