Record voter turnout for Nebr.

LINCOLN - Former Vice President Joe Biden has seemingly won the 2020 presidential election and received a little help from Douglas and Sarpy counties’ voters.

Both counties make up Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. That District made up one electoral vote for the Joe Biden/ Kamala Harris ticket. The remaining four electoral votes went to President Trump and Vice President Pence.

Some government officials, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, are waiting longer to officially declare Biden as the winner.

“This election is not over until every legal vote is counted and the process is scrutinized by the courts,” Taylor Gage, Ricketts’ director of strategic communication, tweeted Saturday. “It is premature for some members of the media to declare a winner at this time.”

Congressional District 3 overwhelmingly supported Trump with 76 percent of its voters submitting a ballot in his favor, which is two percentage points more than 2016. Support for Biden was also two percentage points more than support for Clinton in 2016.

Nebraska broke its previous record turnout, with 74 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse won reelection, and all three Congressional representatives, Rep. Adrian Smith, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and Rep. Don Bacon, will remain in Congress - though Rep. Bacon narrowly won his seat again after challenger Kara Eastman received about 46 percent of the votes.

Nebraskans from across the state supported the constitutional amendment to eliminate slavery as an acceptable punishment.

Voters also passed a constitutional amendment to allow recipients of tax increment financing, which is used for redevelopment projects, to have 20 years to repay if half of the project’s property is “extremely blighted.”

Three initiative measures related to gambling all passed. Their passage permits games of chance within licensed racetrack enclosures and ensures the Nebraska Gambling Commission to regulate its practice. Twenty percent of the annual gross revenue will be taxed, which will then be distributed to the state and the county.

Payday lenders can charge up to only 36 percent annual interest due to the passage of Initiative #428 with more than 80 percent of voters statewide favoring the measure.

Of note, only two of the 50 states in the Union split their electoral votes - Nebraska and Maine. Of Maine’s four votes, one went to Trump and three went to Biden.