'99.995% Success Rate' for Voter ID According to Lancaster County Election Commissioner
by Lewis Thune
(Picture courtesy of the Nebraska Secretary of State)
In the May 12 Lancaster County primary elections, only 3 of 62,826 ballot-casting voters lacked proper identification.
The minuscule figure was first observed by Lancaster County District 3 Commissioner Matt Schulte in a June 14 Facebook post, which credited Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen for sharing the total in a recent meeting.
“Turns out VOTER ID wasn’t the barrier opponents claimed it would be,” Schulte’s post read.
Wiltgen confirmed the accuracy of Schulte’s post to The Plains Sentinel.
“There were only three (3) provisional voter identification ballots cast in Lancaster County for the May 12th statewide primary election,” he said.
The Provisional Voter Identification Verification process (PVIV) was established in the 2023 Voter ID measure LB514, which implemented Initiative 432 requiring voters to present a valid photo ID to vote. PVIV allows a voter who lacks proper identification on election day to cast a ballot, which is to be counted only if the voter provides proper identification to their county election office no more than one week after election day.
Initiative 432 was initially decried as “An attempt by the Republican Party to restrict and block voters from participating in free and fair elections” by Democratic National Committeewoman Charlene Ligon, according to a July 2021 press release from the Nebraska Democratic Party.
During a rally hosted by a group of nonprofits opposing the initiative, Preston Love Jr., an Omaha-based activist, compared the measure to “Jim Crow” laws. “I am a student of the Jim Crow era and I am a veteran of the Civil Rights era, I’ve seen this déjà vu over and over again,” Love Jr. said. “Trying to figure out ways to restrict voting for people, and it turns out to be in many cases people of color and people of low means.”
Lobbying reports from Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure show the chief opponents of LB514 were ACLU Nebraska and Civic Nebraska, the latter compensating three lobbyists in opposition to its passage. Upon its final reading, Civic Nebraska said in a statement:
“LB514’s provisions are the ‘least bad’ option of the voter ID measures considered this year. Like any voter ID bill, if LB514 becomes law, it will make the voting process more complicated for every voter.”
Reflecting on Lancaster’s results, Matt Schulte is confident that the fears of voter ID opponents have been put to rest.
“I’ve been a proponent of voter ID for many years. I supported it, I voted for it. This clearly shows why. We can feel more confident that people are voting, and it’s not a barrier to people voting,” he said, “That’s not voter suppression—that’s a 99.995% success rate.”
The Plains Sentinel has contacted Civic Nebraska with a request for comment.
Former State Sen. Julie Slama, who headed the voter ID initiative efforts, said the success rate Wiltgen touted is proof that fears of disenfranchisement were overblown.
“The liberals’ predictions of mass chaos and disenfranchisement with Voter ID- not shockingly- never came to fruition. Our local election officials do an outstanding job of informing voters of changes to the voting process.”
— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.