Six-decade Douglas County poll worker George Reed shows his family members his new admiralship in the Nebraska Navy from Gov. Jim Pillen for having worked elections in the state for 65 years. Aug. 27, 2025. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — Poll worker George Reed has staffed Nebraska’s elections so long that he was manning the polls in 1964 when a Democrat last won all of the state’s Electoral College votes.
That 1964 victory by Lyndon Johnson was Reed’s second presidential election as a Douglas County poll worker, a 65-year record state and local election officials celebrated on Wednesday in Omaha.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen talks about the importance of Nebraskans being willing to work for their counties during state elections. Aug. 27, 2025. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse said Reed, 86, had worked more than 80 consecutive elections and had “never missed an election,” including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re where the tire meets the road,” Reed said. “We’re out in the field. We are at the elections. If we did not have good people to run the elections … we would not be here today.”
The state’s top election official, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, said he and Reed were among the only attendees Wednesday who remember John F. Kennedy’s win in 1960.
“One of the signal attributes of elections in the State of Nebraska is how secure and accurate they are, and that is a tribute to election workers in all 93 counties,” Evnen said.
For the 2024 presidential election, Reed was one of about 3,000 poll workers in Nebraska’s most populous county. He worked as a runner, driving supplies to some of 233 local polling places.
Reed worked for 45 years at the Metropolitan Utilities District, Omaha’s natural gas and water utility. Family joined him Wednesday, including a daughter who flew in from Boston.
Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Bena elicited a smile from Reed by sharing that Gov. Jim Pillen had appointed him an admiral in the fictitious Nebraska Navy.
Douglas County poll worker George Reed speaks after being honored by Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse. Aug. 27, 2025. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
Evnen handed Reed an award from the National Association of Secretaries of State — its NASS Medallion Award for outstanding service in the mission of the group, including elections.
Bena joined his boss Evnen in using the attention on Reed to recruit new poll workers by joking that Reed was welcome to cross “the train tracks” of Harrison Street and volunteer for Sarpy elections.
State and local election officials have been asking more people to sign up as poll workers at their county election or clerk’s offices as a reliable group of retirees ages out of the job.
Bena and Evnen joined county officials in also thanking the 21 poll workers headed to the county Hall of Fame for their election work, where each joined Reed, a 2010 inductee.
Kruse, grinning at Wayne, said he looked forward to having Reed working Douglas County elections in 2026 and beyond. Reed, Kruse said, is right where he belongs, making elections better.
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