Ricketts shares Trump’s concerns about validity of election results – Lincoln Journal Star

Gov. Pete Ricketts said Wednesday he shares some of the concerns expressed by President Donald Trump about the validity of some of the mail votes cast for president in other states.

“There are concerns to be raised in other states,” where ballots are counted if they are mailed and postmarked by Election Day, the governor said in answer to questions during a Capitol news conference.

“Postmarks can be changed,” he said, and counting ballots “weeks after the election is concerning.”

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Trump suggested he might not accept the results of next month’s election if he loses.

“If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that,” Trump said. 

In Nebraska, mail ballots must be received before closure of the polls on Election Day to be counted.

Ricketts said he believed Trump “came off being very strong” in the debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

“One of the things that struck me was that Joe Biden would not come out against packing the Supreme Court,” the governor said, “and that to me is shocking.”

There has been some speculation that Senate Democrats might consider increasing the size of the U.S. Supreme Court during a Democratic presidential administration in response to Republican action denying a Senate vote on Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the court in 2016 and proceeding now with Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

Biden declined to directly answer a question posed by debate moderator Chris Wallace about so-called “packing” of the court, touching off a bitter exchange with Trump.

Ricketts, who said he watched all but the last 15 minutes of the debate, told a questioner that he “absolutely condemn(s) white supremacy groups.”

The governor described the raucous debate as “rough-and-tumble,” reflecting “full-contact sport … and a rough campaign.”

“I think Trump won that debate,” he said.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen said he is confident that Nebraska’s election results will be secure, but he cautioned voters not to hand their ballots to other people for delivery through a process called “ballot harvesting.”

Many of the people engaged in ballot harvesting are political operatives who may not deliver ballots cast for opposing candidates, he warned.  

“They can throw it away,” he said, and there is no legal recourse or penalty for doing that under current Nebraska law.

Some 350,000 Nebraska voters have requested early ballots that will allow them to vote by mail in this year’s general election. 

The U.S. Postal Service has said those ballots should be in the mail by Oct. 27 to assure delivery by Election Day on Nov. 3, Evnen said, but he cautioned voters to act earlier than that.  

Voters can walk their ballot into county election offices or take them to secure drop boxes to be certain they have been cast in time to be counted, he said. In Lancaster County, they can also drop them off at public libraries across Lincoln and in Hickman and Waverly.

Voters can track whether their ballot has been received on the secretary of state’s website, Evnen noted.

Ballots received after Election Day will not be counted, he stressed.

Unlike many other states, he said, “we will have the results on Election Night.”

Ricketts said he sees no need to restore directed health measures that had been in effect during the early outbreak of COVID-19 in Nebraska now that the number of cases is on the rise in some portions of the state.

“But we will always reevaluate,” he said.

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services leaders said at the news conference that the state is ready for the advent of Medicaid expansion in Nebraska beginning Thursday.

Some 10,288 Nebraskans thus far have been declared eligible for the new benefit package that provides coverage for adults generally described as the working poor. Some 90,000 may eventually qualify, but they need to apply for such assistance.

The program is available to adults age 19 to 64 whose income is at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line. That’s $17,609 for a single person and $36,156 for a family of four.

Medicaid expansion was approved by Nebraska voters in 2018.