By Lexington Souers, Communications Associate
Wayne Bena likes to say his best friend’s daughter’s birthday party launched his career in elections. While at the party, Bena spoke to the then Sarpy County election commissioner, who was considering retirement, about her role in local elections. Pulling from his experience in the state legislature and private practice, Bena thought his skills would be the “right fit” for the role. In 2010, he was appointed Sarpy County election commissioner and has worked in elections ever since.
Sarpy County is Nebraska’s third-largest county and home to the Offutt Air Force Base. Having grown up in the area, Bena knew about some of the stress military families face.
“While not from a military background myself, I understood it by having a lot of friends who were in the military that moved frequently,” Bena said. “When I got to my job in elections, I realized all the different protections and different things we did to help military families and overseas citizens with their vote. It was very important to me, especially being in a place where we had a big concentration of military members, even if they weren’t residents of our state. I knew if I took care of my folks, other states would take care of our folks that were there.”
Lessons learned from working at the county level were pivotal when, in 2017, Bena joined the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office as the deputy secretary of state for elections. In this role, he continued his support of military and overseas voters, due in large part to his belief that “there’s nothing more pure than getting a ballot out to those that need a little more assistance because of where they are.”
Through legislation, Bena helped expand access to National Guard members and utility workers who are working out of state for national disasters. Inspiration for the legislation came from Mississippi, a state where Bena learned from leaders to better understand what was possible from a legislative and practical standpoint.
The bill, LB 843 (2022), focuses on changes to Nebraska’s election laws, including revising Section 32-939 to extend UOCAVA protections to Nebraska National Guard members while out of state. Additionally, a new section was added to allow emergency response and utility workers to request an early voting ballot if they are working outside of Nebraska 45 days before an election.
This was just one example of the changes Bena implemented while in office. He said expanding audits after elections is important to increasing the transparency of elections with voters. Bena added that cybersecurity is an emerging challenge in election administration.
“While elections have always been secure — on state levels and going down to the locals — there’s an enhanced look at where some vulnerabilities could be and how we can work with our state, local and federal partners to fill in any gaps,” Bena said.
Additionally, Bena said voters are looking for more ways to cast their ballots, and that adaptations are needed to ensure laws remain flexible while maximizing the number of votes counted by election night, even with rising concerns about security.
“It is not as complicated as long as you have the laws in place to be flexible and allow your election officials enough time to count your ballots on election night and have as many votes counted as possible before the end of the night,” Bena said. “Because, the next day, that’s when everybody starts asking more questions — why are there more results? Each state is different on how ballots are counted, but if you can have laws that allow for flexibility in regard to the administration on the back end, you can get more done on election night to be able to count the most ballots as possible.”
To answer questions about voting safely during COVID-19, Bena and his team relied on the flexibility of both election laws and local election officials. They decided to send early ballot applications to registered voters while still offering in-person voting. Additionally, Bena made sure to provide poll workers and offices personal protective equipment and started the Step Up campaign to recruit new poll workers. This work resulted in the most ballots cast in the state’s primary history.
“Our laws allow that flexibility to be able to adjust regardless of how people voted to be able to have results,” Bena said. “Just having that election was a great accomplishment for the state, but to have the most ballots cast in the history of a primary was a kind of cherry on top.”
Bena attributed some of the success during COVID-19, and in other elections, to the commitment made through legislation, offering all voters early voting, recruiting new poll workers and providing personal protective equipment for those working in elections to assist all of Nebraska’s 93 counties. In 2020, Bena also helped implement a statewide election equipment update.
“We tried to find ways to level the playing field for counties that may not have the same type of funding as other counties for the same type of services,” Bena said.
Bena and the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office won the inaugural National Association of State Election Directors Innovators Award in 2019 for the state’s use of the Albert Network Monitoring and Management system, which protects voter registration systems used by state and local government entities from cyber threats.
“While the technology is not unique, how Nebraska deployed the technology was unique, and we were fortunate enough to get a little recognition for that,” Bena said.
Nebraska has approximately 2,704 uniformed and overseas voters, who often experience difficulties receiving or sending election materials. Using technology such as email and the Voter Information Center allows election officials to transmit these materials to voters in a timely manner. Bena said Nebraska laws that enable the use of electronic ballot return help reduce the overall anxiety that overseas voters may feel about the voting process.
For example, a Nebraskan who was locked down overseas during the pandemic reached out to Bena’s office due to an inability to scan and return a document. Bena worked with the voter to ensure the ballot was returned by taking a picture with a tablet and sending it electronically.
“It’s finding ways within the margins of the law to be able to get that ballot back in order to be counted,” Bena said. “Every way that we can figure out how to help somebody is very meaningful.”