LINCOLN- Voter turnout in Nebraska counties that conduct elections exclusively by mail reached 55% during the May 10 primary, exceeding the overall voter participation rate of 33.3%, an analysis of the results shows.

Eleven of the ninety-three counties decide to go all mail ballots this year, in 2018 only four counties participated in this form.

For the 2022 primary, some 57.5% of voters in Knox County returned a ballot, a turnout 13% higher on average than its surrounding counties.

Other counties that deployed the vote-by-mail model this year also saw greater success, on average, than surrounding counties where voters still went to the polls.

Boone County (61.7% turnout) reported a turnout 21.6% higher, on average than the six counties that surround it, while Morrill County (54.7% turnout) in the Panhandle saw a turnout 20.4% higher than its surrounding counties.

Sarah Robinson, the county clerk and election commissioner in Boone County said the county gradually transitioned to mail-in elections beginning in 2008 when several precincts lost country schools and churches as polling places.

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