LINCOLN- Nebraskans voted to eradicate the provision that slavery could be used as a punishment for crimes. But, an electorate the size of Lincoln, or nearly one out of three people, voted to keep it. This has left the state senator that introduced the bill, Sen. Justin Wayne, very confused. Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties strongly supported the amendment. Whereas smaller, rural counties in western Nebraska opposed it. Out of the 10 least populated counties, nine voted against it.

Nebraska originally adopted the statute after the Civil War when slavery was outlawed, with the one exception being prisoners. This developed into the practice of "contract leasing" which allowed people to round up black people, who had not committed crimes, and force them into involuntary servitude. Legislators voted unanimously to put this issue on the ballot.

Preston Love Jr., a community leader in Omaha, says he attributes some of the opposition to confusion over ballot language. He said, “I can’t imagine that many in Nebraska would actually consciously say, ‘I don’t want to remove slavery as an option.'" A website that uses academic tests to determine the difficulty of reading ballot language said the estimate education level needed to understand the amendment was at a second-year post-college graduate student.

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