LINCOLN- On Thursday, a Lancaster County District Court Judge dismissed a legal challenge put forth by Legislative candidate Russ Barger that sought to force the state to hand-recount the votes in his race against Democrat George Dungan. Judge Kevin McManaman ruled against Barger's lawsuit on the grounds that his court lacked the jurisdiction to consider it and also that Barger's original filing lacked a notarized signature.

Jennifer Huxoll, a representative of the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, agreed that, because of the missing electronic notarization, Judge McManaman did not have the authority to consider Barger's complaint. Judge McManaman later wrote that the "law of Nebraska is clear that the filing of a motion and affidavit for a verified petition is a jurisdictional requirement."

Under state law, an automatic recount is used if the votes separating two candidates is less than 1%. However, Secretary of State Bob Evnen found that Dungan had acquired 223 more votes than Barger, a number that falls above the 1% vote recount threshold.

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