Power restored at Douglas County Election Office after squirrel causes outage

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The Douglas County Election Commission Office suffered a power outage Friday afternoon, bringing down their computer and telephone systems for more than two hours.

Omaha Public Power District said the outage occurred around 3 p.m. Friday; the elections office notified the public via Twitter at 4:12 p.m.

Due to an OPPD outage, our office is temporarily without computers and telephones. We are communicating with voters who are currently in line to receive ballots. On Sat, Oct 31, we will be open 9 AM-5 PM. Thank you for your patience in dealing with this unexpected challenge.
— Douglas Co Elections (@dcElections) October 30, 2020

“We are communicating with voters who are currently in line to receive ballots,” an election official told 6 News.

Thanking voters for their patience, officials said the election office will have extended hours on Saturday, remaining open to voters from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

LAUREN IS LIVE: Election commission outage
POWER BACK ON: Lauren Melendez has an update on the outage at the Douglas County Election Commission office.
Posted by WOWT 6 News on Friday, October 30, 2020

According to OPPD, about 60 customers are without power near 120th and Center Streets, which includes the election office. The outage call was reported at around 3 p.m., OPPD stated in a release.

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