The Nebraska Secretary of State's office says county election offices across the state are seeing an increase in early voting over years' past.
The office says that in Nebraska's three largest counties, Lancaster, Sarpy and Douglas, more people also have been voting early in-person.
Sarpy County Election Commissioner Wayne Bena says more than 17,000 voters have requested early ballots while nearly 20,000 have sought early ballots in Lancaster County.
In Douglas County, 3,676 people have voted in person, and more than 54,700 have asked for early ballots, with more than 20,000 already returned.
All three counties say this election's early ballot requests have already exceeded those for the 2008 general election.
It was a busy day Wednesday inside the Douglas County Elections Commissioner’s Office in Omaha with people packing in ahead of the November 6th election. Kachelle Roby came with her mother Carolyn. Kachelle is a first-time voter and both decided to vote early.
“First I was thinking of, horrible as it sounds, to not voting, but after watching both debates I decided it's your civic duty, you need to vote," said Carolyn.
"I feel like I'm supporting something and voting who I wanted it to be," said Kachelle.
Both women say they also decided to vote early because of the convenience and it looked like others agreed. The most popular way this election is to vote early by mail. “By mail, we've already beaten what we did by four years ago by a significant amount,” says Douglas County Election Commissioner Dave Phipps.
As far as people walking in to vote early in Douglas County, that number is actually down so far. Early voter John Jensen explains what it looked like inside four years ago compared to now. “I remember waiting forever and then it was like Disneyland going back and forth, so you waited in lines even more inside. But I made it through and voted and felt good about it."
That's exactly what voting officials want to emphasize. Whether you vote early or on Election Day, voting is what's most important.
The last day a ballot can be mailed to you is October 31st. The Monday before the election is the last day for early voting.
