High Turnout Wide Margins recently traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for the 2025 summer convening of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions [PLEJ], and spoke with election officials from across the county — and world -- about the elections work they are doing in their communities.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Brian Kruse. He’s the Douglas County Election Commissioner based in Omaha, Nebraska. They spoke about how elections work in Nebraska, as well as the unique way Nebraska ensures there’s enough poll workers — by drafting them.
Kruse has announced that he will step down from his current position in January 2026.
High Turnout, Wide Margins Credits:
Managing Editor: Rebecca Smith
Managing Producer: Aaron Hay
Associate Producer: Katie Quinn
Digital Producer: Mark Johnson
Transcription of the episode is as follows:
Brian Kruse: We’ve drafted everybody from an emergency room doctor to a CEO of one of our high rises to, you know, you name it — daycare, UP [Union Pacific], Conagra, UNO [University of Nebraska Omaha], the housewife, you name it. If you're a registered voter, you could be drafted.
Laughter
[High Turnout Wide Margins Introduction]
Brianna Lennon: Welcome back to another exciting episode of High Turnout Wide Margins. This is Brianna Lennon. I'm the County Clerk in Boone County, Missouri, and with me is my co-host —
Eric Fey: Eric Fey, Director of elections in St. Louis County, Missouri.
Brianna Lennon: And today, we're really excited to have —
Brian Kruse: Brian Kruse, Douglas County Election Commissioner from Omaha, Nebraska.
Brianna Lennon: Well, thank you for coming on the show. We are in person — we are at the PLEJ conference in Fort Lauderdale this week and talking to folks from across the world, really. We've done some international episodes and things like that, too, but we have Brian here because we have not done any Nebraska episodes yet. So we're very excited to check that state off of our map, and our first question, as always, is more about you and how you got started in elections. So, can you share your origin story?
Brian Kruse: Sure, you bet. So, I was born in Omaha, and then I was actually raised right across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The Missouri River just separates us there. I grew up mostly in Council Bluffs, but, in the summers, I would go to my grandparents farm in northeast Nebraska and stayed with them — or northwest Iowa, excuse me, northwest Iowa. Up by Sioux City, Grove area. Then I went to Wayne State College in northeast Nebraska, up by Sioux City. Then I came back — my very first job out of college was working for Dave Heineman. Many folks may remember him as our longest serving governor of the state, but I actually worked for him when he was a state treasurer, worked there a couple years, decided I can't make any money in state government, didn't want to work for the government, and so I left. And then I actually was a funeral director for about 16, 17, 18 years.
Always stayed involved in politics — had some very exciting wins I helped with, and had some very agonizing defeats that I helped with, as well. But then, when Governor Ricketts got elected to Governor, I think it was 2014, 2015 because I took over in 2016, January 1 of 2016 — he appointed me. Well, I was encouraged by some people in Omaha. They said, “We think you'd be a good Election Commissioner. We need a change,” and I said, “You guys are crazy” I said, you know, I said, “Here's the deal. I helped some of his opponents in the primaries” — I'd been a little political, but not overtly, but I said “I helped some of his opponents in the primaries. I don't really know the guy.” I said, “He's going to appoint one of his guys or gals to the job, and he should.” I said, “He won. That's the way the world works because it's a political appointment.” But there was six of us. He interviewed us and he chose me. So, they're four year appointments. So, he appointed me twice, and our current governor, Jim Pillen, has appointed me, and I'm in the second year of a four year term now. So, I've done three Presidentials, and we'll see what the future holds.
Laughter
Eric Fey: So, that's interesting. So, you're appointed directly by the governor?
Brian Kruse: Right. So, it's an interesting system in Nebraska. I'm appointed by the governor, but I'm a county election official, so I'm an employee of the county. The county provides my office and my budget, and then the opposite party of the Election Commissioner — they can submit at least three names to the Election Commissioner. Then the Election Commissioner interviews those individuals from the Democratic Party, I mean, other parties can submit names too, but the Democratic Party, and then the Election Commissioner chooses a deputy who serves with him or her the four years, as well, and my deputy was actually there before me, and they submitted his name, and we've been great partners in crime ever since.
Brianna Lennon: So, is that the case in all counties in Nebraska?
Brian Kruse: It's the case in counties of over 100,000 population. So, there's only three counties in Nebraska like that — Douglas, which is Omaha, Sarpy, which is part of the metro area to the south, and then Lancaster County in Lincoln. The vast majority of other counties are county clerks that are elected. However, we like to complicate life in Nebraska — counties between 20,000, I believe, or 25,000 and 99,999 can have an Election Commissioner appointed by their county boards, and there's a few of those, like my good friend Tracy from Hall County out at Grand Island, and so, there's three or four of those, but the vast majority are clerks elected around the state.
Brianna Lennon: Do you all have a state association? And, if so — like we've had, I think, different iterations of our state association over time. There was a melding of them because we have kind of similar — larger jurisdictions have a board and then everyone else is an elected county. So, for a time, the boards had their own association, melded them together. Do you all do that? Or are you pretty much all kind of in the same boat?
Brian Kruse: We have a very strong state association, which is great and been very helpful. It's the clerks, Register of Deeds and election commissioners because many of the clerks — because of the size of, very small size of the county, have numerous other jobs. So, yeah, we do have a very strong association. We always have a summer conference in June. Then NACO, the Nebraska Association of County Officials, always has their big meeting in December, and then every other year in the fall, which is coming up in October, the Secretary of State's office puts on a training session for our association, and we work hand in hand. We work very well with the Nebraska Secretary of State's office, which is great because it's a great resource for us, you know, I know funding is a huge topic around the country. I've talked to some counties who have to do it on their own, some get state help, some don't. But in Nebraska, we were extremely fortunate. The State purchased all new equipment statewide for everybody back before the 2020 election. We have a statewide voter registration system that the state pays for. So, while there are some unfunded mandates from the state, there's a lot of benefit that election offices around the state get, as well.
Eric Fey: That's pretty interesting. Are all the counties obligated to utilize the system the state chooses, or could somebody kind of go off on their own if they wanted to fund it on their own?
Brian Kruse: I believe they're obligated to use the system the state — because it, I suppose, if you got in a big wavering lawsuit, but it basically says the Secretary of State's the chief election officer, and he or she, you know, has quite a bit of power and has the ability to determine how elections are run, and so, from that, we extrapolate that, “Yes, they determine which machines you can and can't use,” you know, things of that nature.
Brianna Lennon: So, you've been — you said you have done three presidential elections.
Brian Kruse: Yes, I have.
Brianna Lennon: You've been through different iterations of things. What has changed the most in the time that you've been working there?
Brian Kruse: Well, you know, it's always interesting because, if folks remember from their days back in fifth grade or maybe college civics — we are one of two states in the nation that split our electoral vote. Us and Maine. And there's only two that do it. Nebraska — two and Maine — two. And we were the first to do it, in ‘08, in the history of the nation, with Mr. Obama, when he got the electoral vote there, but the Republican Congressman got elected there. So, and that's happened since. I've been there as well. And so, one of the big things is there's been a lot more national and even international attention and media on the blue dot because there's all these, I'll say, crazy theories — where it could always come down to CD two [Congressional District], if the president's going to get elected or not, you know? And it's, like, any mathematician or actuarialist or statistician would tell you, it's never going to happen. But of course, in elections, never say never.
Eric Fey: The first question we always ask people about their background is always fascinating, and folks being involved somewhat in politics is not uncommon, but folks being involved in the funeral industry is unique.
Laughter
Brian Kruse: Yes.
Eric Fey: And so, with that background, like you said, you had been involved somewhat in politics, but what surprised you about administering elections? What were the things you thought you knew about it that ended up not being the case or vice versa?
Brian Kruse: Yeah, you know, that's an interesting question. I guess I had forgot, or maybe I wasn't really involved in the level I was when I worked at the treasurer's office, but, you know, if I wanted to do something, or if I wanted something, or if I wanted to buy something — I just did it. I just went over to Home Depot and bought it, or I went to Office Depot and bought it. And, you know, working for the government — it was a little eye opening. I hate to use the word “bureaucracy,” maybe we should use “checks and balances.”
Laughter
But that was just pretty eye opening to me, I guess, the way government works — just how to purchase things, how things move, you know, the county sets the salaries for everybody. I don't have the ability to give bonuses or raises. Sadly, we had an individual who we ultimately terminated, but it took like four months to get it done. It was just crazy. That's probably the most frustrating slash miserable experience I had because he just stopped showing up for work, and it was like a month before we could finally terminate him. It's just crazy to me. So, just, you know, I understand why they're in place, because, to protect people and individuals rights, and I understand that, and, I guess, I would hope that individuals who are supervisors like myself would be fair and free and to everybody who works for them and give a safe and comfortable work environment. But unfortunately, we know that's not true. So, I understand why they're there. It's just, it was a little overwhelming and frustrating at times.
[High Turnout Wide Margins Midbreak]
Brianna Lennon: You have one of the more unique poll worker, I guess, recruitment.
Laughter
Brianna Lennon: Can you talk a little bit about how you bring on poll workers in Nebraska, and, I guess, your opinion of whether you think it's a good system or not?
Brian Kruse: So, Nebraska is unique in the fact that we have a state law that we can actually draft poll workers. Just like you can be drafted for jury duty. As near as we can tell, the law was enacted somewhere, we believe 1914. So, it's well over a century old, you know, we know it's been in use the last, since the 50s, 60s, where, you know, record keeping obviously — we don't know if it's been in continuous use, but it's been in use for a very long time, you know? And so, you have to be a registered voter in order to be drafted, and it's completely random. And then, once you're drafted, you have to serve four elections by law. Now those may not necessarily be consecutive elections because it depends on party makeup and experienced and non-experienced. We need more for presidentials than we do cities, of course. So, you know, it may take you six or seven or eight years to get your four in. So, you're just kind of hanging out there.
And there's really, I mean, so to speak — there's really no out or no excuse. If you're over 70, you can opt out. If you have a medical condition, then we just need a note from a doctor or physician. You know, if you had travel plans or something of that nature, provide us documents — you're postponed, you're not forgiven, you're postponed for the future. But, you know, it's worked great for us. It's, honestly, it's worked great for us.
For one — the average age of our poll workers is 56, 57 years old, which we know is well below the national average. The other thing is, I would say Omaha is not a hugely diverse community, but we do have a large Hispanic population in South Omaha, a large African American population in North Omaha. So, you know, we try and place those individuals, especially Spanish speaking [people] in the Spanish speaking areas. We have organizations that help us do that. So, we have a more diverse poll worker population, we believe, than just the — I'm gonna be a little cliche, but the retired grandma who goes and becomes a poll worker.
And the other thing we often hear — we hear it a lot from our poll workers that are drafted — is they're like, “We had no idea. We had no idea what all went into this. We had no idea how safe and secure it is,” you know, they're like, “You couldn't cheat if you wanted to.” We're like, “Yeah, correct,” you know, “right, that's the point of the system,” and then these folks, really, they go out and become great ambassadors for us, the majority of them, you know, to their places of worship, football games, softball games, bridge clubs, wherever they live, neighborhood associations, it's great.
We get a few complainers, but, you know, we work with them and lead them along and, in the end, most people understand it's their civic duty. So, we've got about 55% volunteer and about 45% drafting. So, we've got a good mix, you know, we do our poll worker training online, which helps ease the pain for them. They don't take time out of their day to go somewhere. They are paid minimum wage. They're protected from their employer. Their employer cannot make them take sick time or personal time or time off. That's for volunteers or draftees, either one.
Brianna Lennon: If you volunteer, does that exempt you from the draft?
Brian Kruse: It does. And if you're a draftee, and then you just want to do your four and get it over, you can volunteer too, as well, as long as we have a spot for you. You know, it all depends on where we have a place, but we, you know, we’ve drafted everybody from an emergency room doctor to a CEO of one of our high rises to, you know, you name it — daycare, UP [Union Pacific], Conagra, UNO [University of Nebraska Omaha], the housewife, you name it. If you're a registered voter, you could be drafted.
Eric Fey: So, the burning question people want to know about this is, you know, please tell us that you, Brian, you've got a badge, you got a little siren on your car —
Laughter
Eric Fey: Somebody doesn't report for duty, you can go lock them up, right?
Brian Kruse: Well, not exactly.
Laughter
Brian Kruse: You know, we get, in our initial mailing like we just sent out, we'll get about a 10% non-response. Now, you have to realize that includes some that will be returned to us from mail. Some will be on trips. Some will be, you know, maybe in a rehab facility or whatever. Some won't get delivered by the post office. We all know how that goes. It is a class 4 misdemeanor if you don't show up, but if we don't hear a response, then we have another letter we send, and we'll also try and call, we email, we text, and so, you know, we — eventually we’ll get ya. It's, we have very, I mean, we have a handful of folks that just absolutely refuse to respond, and we just keep working with them, but, you know, we've talked about, at some point, maybe having a county attorney send them a letter, but it's, you know, it's, we're working on that because we just have so so few, to be quite frank, but we're working. We got them on the list.
Well, it was funny, one was from my church, and he kept avoiding us, and I got him one Sunday after church. I said — his name was Brian — I said, “Hey, Brian. I've been trying to contact you for quite a while now.” He's like, “Yeah, I know.” I'm like, “Yeah, well, you need to respond.”
Laughter
Eric Fey: I'm a little bit surprised that this concept hasn't been tried anywhere else. What pros and cons, what advice would you give the other states our election administrators if they wanted to explore a program like this?
Brian Kruse: Yeah, you know, I think the big thing is — I, in my office, we always try and come at it from the positive aspects, you know, especially for those who are drafted. “Hey, it's your civic duty. You're going to learn a lot about the election process,” you know, “it's only one day every two years. We appreciate your service,” you know? And then, some of the, if you're going to try and do it through legislation or maybe a city charter or a county board could do it, I suppose. Every state's different.
Again, some of the positives are — you're educating the population, in theory, which, it's just going to be natural. The average age of our poll workers are going to come down. You're going to have a more diversified, in theory, you could have poll workers selection, you know. And, “Hey, it's your civic duty. Just like jury duty. It's your civic duty,” you know? So, you know, that's what I would say.
I think you, probably — if you're going to do this, try and do this in a jurisdiction — you need to show the need for it. So, you know, if you are struggling and you can go to whatever entity you need to and say, “Hey, we're supposed to have 10 people at each polling place,” you know, “we've only got enough for eight or nine in our data bank.” I've been on the radio, the TV, social media, begging people. We can't get people. You know, “Hey, elections are the backbone of our democracy. We got to have them.” That could be a selling point as well, you know, or, “We've got just enough in our pool to fill and we know people don't show up on election day.” So, you know, those would be the things.
I mean, I suppose if you want to talk about a negative you're going to have some complainers. I suppose people could say, “Well, it's the government interfering in my life, making me do something I don't want to do.” Well, you know what? They do that every day. You got to drive 65 on the interstate. You got to wear your seat belt. You can't smoke, in most states, you can't smoke in a bar now. I mean, it's just, it's just a fact of life. It's the way the world works. They're not telling you, you know, how you can dress. They're not telling you what job you can have. It's just — sometimes, you live in our Great Republic, you got to give back and you gotta do civic duty things, sometimes, that you don't want to maybe do, but it turns out to be really good in the end.
So, it's just the one time. It's your four years, but, you know, we often do have people at the end, at the end of their four years — we send them a letter inviting them to continue on as a volunteer, and many do, and we actually have a Poll Worker Hall of Fame where people who've served more than 20 years or 20 elections, we induct into our poll worker Hall of Fame. We had a lady, last year, that was like 30 years, and she started out as a draftee. Our poll worker coordinator, actually, in her office, who was in charge of all the poll workers. She retired a couple years ago, but she was a draftee, and then she came to the office as a temp, and then she applied for the permanent job as a poll worker coordinator, and worked there for 20 years. So, you know, there's some great stories like that.
I will just say this, just to digress just a little bit, because it is on the poll worker topic — George Reed was not a volunteer, but he started in 1960 with us. His first presidential election was President Kennedy, and we just honored him, this year, for 65 years of continuous service. He has never ever missed an election. He served under 14 different election commissioners. His family came in, his daughter came from Boston, I believe. We honored him at the city council meeting, county board meeting. So, yeah, he's seen it all. I mean, you know, he's been through Vietnam. He worked in COVID for us. He worked during COVID. George was a trooper. He worked the last city elections. So, I know there's poll workers out there that have given many, many years of service, but 65 years is pretty remarkable and pretty cool, and he's — I got to believe he's got to be in the top tier of poll workers for continuous service around the nation on that
Brianna Lennon: You've been listening to High Turnout Wide Margins, a podcast that explores local elections administration. I'm your host, Brianna Lennon alongside Eric Fey. A big thanks to KBIA and the Election Center for making this podcast possible. Our Managing Editor is Rebecca Smith. Managing Producer is Aaron Hay. Our Associate Producer is Katie Quinn, and our Digital Producer is Mark Johnson. This has been High Turnout Wide Margins. Thanks for listening.
