Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen hosts a news conference announcing his bid to seek a third four-year term in 2026. June 6, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen is seeking reelection as the state’s chief elections officer.
In his campaign kick-off event Friday, the secretary of state touted the state’s elections as the nation’s most “secure or accurate.” But he said he wonders whether any non-citizens might have gotten on the voter rolls.
Evnen appeared to be trying to balance defending the state’s elections his office administers and echoing the concerns of some Republicans and President Donald Trump over election integrity since the 2020 presidential election, national framing that some election experts have warned could undermine trust in elections.
“There is more work to be done, and we must continue to focus on being proactive in the future,” Evnen said. “Threats to election security are not static.”
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen hosts a news conference announcing his intentions to seek a third four-year term in 2026. Evnen’s wife Debra stands at right in red. June 6, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly joined Evnen’s reelection announcement, as well as a handful of Nebraska state senators. Evnen is running for his third term as secretary of state, but this race follows his closest contest to date, a 2022 GOP primary in which he faced two populist Republican challengers who combined to hold him under 50% of the vote. He won the general election without any major party opponent. His office, in addition to overseeing elections, also handles business registrations and international relations.
Kelly emphasized that the country has seen “some very poorly orchestrated elections,” but “not in Nebraska.”
“We’ve been so lucky to have Bob Evnen,” Kelly said.
Kelly and other speakers praised Evnen for how he has represented Nebraska when speaking to other counties about trade opportunities with the state, and for his handling of elections.
Nebraskans passed a state constitutional amendment in 2022 requiring the Legislature to implement voter ID in Nebraska. Nonpartisan poll watchers have praised Evnen’s office for its implementation of the law, and Fewer voters were turned away under the law than in other states with similar laws.
Evnen, in talking about the voter rolls and what he described as the risks of non-citizens voting, said years of the U.S. having an “open border” left him questioning “whether some of those people ended up on voter rolls.”
Election watchdogs have said that framing from some Republicans is based on the “myth” of widespread voting by non-citizens. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, analyzed election conduct from 2003 to 2024 and found 24 instances nationally of noncitizens voting out of millions of votes cast.
Evnen also reemphasized his support for Trump’s executive order overhauling the administration of U.S. elections. The secretary signed on to a joint letter with 19 other Republican secretaries of state this year that requested more access to federal immigration data to help verify voter registrations.
Evnen told KETV earlier this year that he would like to investigate whether 46 Nebraskans who have voted over the past several elections are U.S. citizens.
When the Nebraska Examiner asked the Secretary of State’s Office earlier this year how many non-citizens had been removed from voter rolls or voted in past elections, a spokesperson said the agency has not “removed anyone due to their status as a non-citizen, nor do we believe that there are many such people registered to vote.”
Evnen’s office, in the regular course of business, removed 13,550 voters from the voter rolls after the November 2024 election – most due to death or relocation from the state. Such removals are routine and required by federal and state law. Evnen said Friday that his office is working with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office to establish a process to confirm the citizenship of people registered to vote in Nebraska.
Current Federal law doesn’t require proof of citizenship to register — but it bans noncitizens from voting in elections. Other states, such as Wyoming and Louisiana, have passed state laws requiring anyone registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship. Those bills align with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which the U.S. House passed in April. The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship in federal elections.
If the SAVE Act passes the Senate and becomes law, it would codify parts of the Trump executive order that Evnen calls a “new and hopeful chapter.”
“The President’s executive order all but points to Nebraska as the model for how free and fair elections should be conducted,” Evnen said.
Evnen has talked about potentially requesting more time from the Legislature to verify signatures on petition drives for ballot measures after questions were raised about the validity of some signatures gathered for recent petitions, including ones targeted in a lawsuit aimed at stopping medical marijuana. Legislation seeking to provide more time fell short this year.
Evnen also said Friday that he is “proudly pro-life and pro-Second Amendment” — topics beyond the scope of his office that could signal that the Secretary of State has bigger aspirations. He said he expected a challenger in 2026, whether from his right flank, a Democrat or both.
“If one is going to run for office, the only safe assumption to make is that one will have an opponent,” Evnen said.
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