Ballots for the Wakefield Community Schools $46.8 million bond special election were set to go out this week, and should be arriving in registered voters’ mailboxes yet this week.
To return those ballots, there are three options that voters can take advantage of, depending on whether or not they wish to pay the postage for the mail-in election.
The ballots will require $1.59 postage, paid by the voters, to return by mail, voters can also hand deliver them to their county courthouse, and they can also be placed in any mail-in voting drop box that are outside the courthouses (as pictured nearby.)
Ballots must be returned by 5 p.m. on November 14 to their County Clerk’s office to be counted in the election, whether they are sent by mail or not. Voting, and accepting of any ballots, will be closed at 5 p.m. in every courthouse.
In any case – the ballots must be returned to the county courthouse in which the voter resides. A Dixon County resident cannot return their ballot to Wayne and vice versa for Thurston as well. Dixon County voters must return their ballots by mail, drop off or in the box, directly to the Dixon County Courthouse.
Ballots will be transported from Wayne and Thurston Counties to the Dixon County Courthouse for counting after 5 p.m. on November 14.
Additional instructions include to use a black pen to mark the ballot and voting by filling in the entire circle of the selection.
With the mail-in election rules the voted ballot must be placed in the return envelope, and voters are required to complete and seal the instructions on the envelope – and are required to sign the envelope as well. Often times to verify a ballot, signatures will be compared.
According to the sample ballot “failure to complete and sign the return identification envelope will cause the ballot to be rejected.” Anyone needing assistance to sign the envelope can make his/her “mark” in the presence of a witness.
If more than one ballot comes to a household for two separate registered voters, the ballots must be placed in their individual envelopes – voters should not try to mail back more than one ballot in an envelope.
Sample ballots will be published before the election date, but the ballot question will be as follows:
School Bond Election
Wayne County School District 0560
(Wakefield Community Schools)
In the State of Nebraska
"Shall Wayne County School District 0560 (Wakefield Community Schools) in the State of Nebraska issue its general obligation bonds in an aggregate stated principal amount not to exceed Forty-Six Million Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars ($46,800,000), to pay the costs of constructing additions, renovations and improvements to the District's existing school buildings and facilities, and providing necessary equipment and apparatus for such buildings and facilities; with such bonds to be issued in one or more series, at such time or times, to bear interest at such rate or rates, to be sold at such prices and to become due at such time or times as may be fixed by, or determined at the direction of, the Board of Education; and
"Shall the School District cause to be levied and collected annually a special levy of taxes against all the taxable property in the School District sufficient in rate and amount to pay the principal of and interest on such bonds as the same become due?"
O FOR such Bonds and Tax
O AGAINST such Bonds and Tax
Electors voting in favor of the proposition shall blacken the oval opposite the words "FOR such Bonds and tax" following such proposition, and electors voting against such propositions shall blacken the oval opposite the words "AGAINST such Bonds and tax" following the proposition.
Ballots for special election mailed out
October 28, 2023