LINCOLN- Nebraska's voter turnout in this year's midterm elections was 54.8%, a small dip from 2018's 58%. However, although turnout was lower than the last midterm's, it was still higher than the norm.

Before 2018, midterm voter turnout usually sat between 45% and 53.6%. These newer, higher numbers mirror national trends. According to the U.S. Elections Project, the 2022 and 2018 midterms had higher nationwide turnouts than previous years.

Many speculate that the reason for the higher numbers seen this year was issues like abortion and inflation, which both parties are heavily interested in.

The Washington Post noted that voter turnout in battleground states was particularly high, with Pennsylvania and Michigan surpassing their 2018 results. Other states that surpassed their 2018 results are Arkansas, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, and South Dakota.

Some also believe that voter turnout was so high in 2018 and 2022 because the governorship was on the ballot as well as several contentious ballot measures, like Medicaid in 2018 and voter ID in 2022.

The heated congressional races in Nebraska may also have increased turnout this year, and some of the races, like Tony Vargas and Don Bacon's, were much closer than expected.

Perre Nielan, a political consultant, and John Hibbing, a political science professor at the Unversity of Nebraska-Lincoln, believe the Vargas-Bacon race was the reason for such high turnout this year. Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse confirmed that his county saw a 53.8% turnout, a few points shy of 2018's 57.7%.

Kruse said that he thought the lower turnout in Douglas County may have been because people are tired of politics. "I think people just--they want a break," he said.

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