Combination of local race interest, Governor's race could boost Gage County Primary turnout

BEATRICE – Gage County has 14,278 registered voters heading into Tuesday’s Primary. Those registered as Republicans outnumber Democrats by a more than two-to-one margin…while those registering as non-partisan are not far behind the number of Democrats.

Gage County Election Commissioner Dawn Hill says there’s still solid interest in early voting.  "For the primary, it's not a presidential election, so it's typically not as heavy. We have about forty one, forty two hundred early ballots, so that's pretty comparable to some of our other primaries."

A total of 4,178 persons took out ballots for early voting, and those ballots must be returned to the county by eight p.m., Tuesday.  Poll locations remain the same with the exception of a one voting location moving back to the Beatrice YMCA…following renovation work.  Hill says interest should be higher than in most primaries, because of races both at the local and state levels.

"Just because of the contested races, with the (Beatrice) school and the (Beatrice) mayor...so those, I think will bring out a few people. I know on the Republican side, with individuals running for the governor race.....that's probably going to bring out more people than we normally have."

Hill says in each election, there are those voters switching party affiliation in order to vote on a particular slate of candidates. It gets a little more complicated for those registering as non-partisan.

"The issue with non-partisan is people think they can pick and choose how they want to vote. In some respects, now maybe they can with these non-partisan, partisan ballots. However, the Republicans have never opened their entire ballot, so what you get is Senate and Congress....and that's what it was originally for all parties. Since the last two or three election cycles, the Democrat, the Libertarian and now the Legal Marijuana Now Party has opened up their entire ballot. So now, if you're a non-partisan voter and ask for a non-partisan, partisan ballot...you will get all of the races if you pick....other than the Republican."

Most Gage County officials are running for reelection unopposed. One exception is in the Seventh District Gage County Supervisor’s race, where incumbent Republican Terry Jurgens faces a primary contest with Republican Randy Frerking. All but one of the remaining three supervisor seats will be decided in November.