(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
OMAHA — Scott Petersen has made election integrity the focal point of his campaign for Secretary of State. During the primary, moving Nebraska’s vote counting from machines to hand-counted paper ballots was a key issue. Now, just ahead of Election Day, he appears to have softened that stance.
In March, Petersen held an event with Seth Keshel, a prominent figure in the election integrity movement who has advocated for the elimination of electronic voting machines and a return to hand-counted paper ballots. Petersen addressed the issue directly:
“We have to come up with a plan to absolutely get rid of the machines and get back to that hand-count paper ballot at the county level,” Petersen said. “That is project number one when I get elected.”
Under current Nebraska law, counties use optical scanners to tabulate paper ballots. Neither the Secretary of State nor local election officials can switch to a hand-count system as the primary method without new legislation, as confirmed by a 2023 Attorney General opinion.
The next day, at an event with the River City Republicans, Petersen framed the issue as one of local control
“I want to give the control of elections back to the counties, where it should be,” Petersen said. “I will actually push to make sure we get back to that local control of elections. And quite honestly, the ultimate [solution] is hand-count paper ballots.”
He also referenced Mark Cook, founder of the Hand Count Road Show, an initiative that travels the country advocating for the replacement of electronic voting machines with hand-counted paper ballots.
“There’s a couple of accounting processes that are quite amazing. This Mark Cook has one and it is super amazing how fast and efficient it is,” Petersen said.
Petersen’s position drew criticism from his opponents. Democratic challenger Sarah Slattery called it a “terrible idea.”
“People suck at counting stuff,” Slattery said. “There’s about a 2-25% error rate when people hand count.”
She also cited cost concerns, saying Hall County Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet estimated hand-counting would cost $270,000 in a county with an annual election budget of roughly $500,000.
America First challenger Bob Krist agreed.
“If we’re telling the counties they have to vote in person, and then they have to count everything by hand, that’s an unfunded mandate,” Crist said. “We can’t afford that right now.”
Petersen has pointed to countries such as France, which use hand-counted paper ballots, as evidence that the approach is feasible for a state the size of Nebraska.
Softened Stance on Hand-Counting
On Wednesday, at a candidate forum hosted by the B’nai B’rith Henry Monsky Lodge and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), Petersen was asked by Sharon Brodkey whether he wanted to eliminate voting machines and switch to hand-counting all ballots. He said no.
“Some people think that the ultimate [solution] is hand-count paper ballots,” Petersen said. “There’s a lot of challenges with that because it takes time and some people say it’s more expensive. So there’s probably a better solution with a combination, right?”
Rather than eliminating tabulation machines, Petersen now emphasizes transparency and independent verification of the systems.
“We have to have people, forensic people, look at the code, make sure there’s nothing going on in the code that’s going to do any tampering with elections,” he said. “It has to be absolutely verifiable. And I look forward to working with ES&S, because I’ve heard they do have that, but a lot of people don’t buy it.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, a slim majority of Americans are not confident in the honesty of U.S. elections—a level that has remained relatively consistent over the past two decades.
Some attendees accused Petersen of fostering distrust by questioning past election results, including the 2020 presidential outcome. Petersen maintained that Nebraska’s elections are reliable, while arguing that problems elsewhere have eroded confidence here.
“Is there evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nebraska? No,” Petersen said. “But the bigger problem is there’s enough people that don’t have confidence in our elections, because they see all the things going on around the country.”
He argued that greater transparency would help restore trust.
“They ask these questions, ‘Are our systems vulnerable to tampering?’ And the poor county clerks are in a bad position, because they’re really not able to answer a lot of those questions with transparency,” Petersen said. “One of the things I want to do is give them the tools to answer those questions and be more transparent and restore that confidence.”
Solutions After Election Day
Petersen acknowledged that the Secretary of State lacks unilateral authority to change major election laws, such as those governing mail-in ballots or hand-counting. He said there are still steps he could take administratively.
“There’s a lot of little things that the Secretary of State can do unilaterally,” Petersen said. “My team has made a pretty good research project, and they have given me a list of the things that we have authority to do, and here’s the things that we have to work with the legislature to get done.”
That list, available on Petersen’s website, includes items such as cleaning voter rolls, limiting drop boxes, and enforcing chain-of-custody and system integrity rules.
Multiple attendees continued to press him on his platform. In closing, Brodkey noted that “this has been a tough crowd.”
Petersen thanked the group for the questions.
“If I’m not able to answer tough questions, I shouldn’t be doing the job,” he said. “So I really appreciate the invitation to come here and talk with you. And invite me back, and I’ll come back.”
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.