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![handle is hein.sag/sagne2023 and id is 1 raw text is:
Office
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DOUGLAS J. PETERSON
ATTORNEY GENE8RAL
STATE OF NEBRASKA
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2115STATE CAPITOL BUILDING
LINCOLN. NE 68509-8920
(402) 471-2882
TDD (402) 4 71-2682
FAX (402) 471 -3291 or (402) 471-4725
STATE OF NEBRASKA
OFFICIAL
JAN 03U202
DEPT OF JUSTICE
SUBJECT
REQUESTED BY:
WRITTEN BY,
Authority of County Clerks or Election Commissioners to Manually
Count Ballots
Senator Steve Erdman
Nebraska State Legislature
Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General
Lynn A. Melson, Assistant Attorney General
INTRODUCTION
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General concerning the authority
of individual county clerks or election commissioners to choose to exclusively hand count
ballots without the use of vote counting machines. You have asked that we provide our
opinion whether legislation would be needed to authorize those local election officials to
opt to manually count ballots or whether current state law already permits them to do so.
You are considering introducing legislation in January which would allow local election
officials to make that choice.
ANALYSIS
1a Applicable Nebraska Statutes
The State's Election Act [The Act] is found at Neb Rev. Stat. §§ 32-101 to 32-
1551 (2016 and Cum. Supp. 2022). The provisions of Article 10 of the Act pertain to
counting and canvassing ballots.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.sag/sagne2023&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)