A tight race for the Democratic nomination in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District will be decided this week as the Douglas County Election Commission counts approximately 9,700 mail-in ballots and an undetermined number of provisional ballots.
The yet-to-be-counted ballots are the remaining source of uncertainty in the race between Denise Powell and John Cavanaugh. Powell led the tally by 1,080 votes heading into Wednesday.
"There are approximately 9,700 by mail ballots that we will be processing today, making sure that their signatures match their envelope," Douglas County Election Commissioner Danielle Jensen said Wednesday. "Then we will open those (Thursday) during opening board where we have bipartisan teams."
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The 9,700 ballots include Republican and nonpartisan ballots. It's not clear exactly how many Democratic ballots are in the mix. But about 59% of the total ballots in the primary as of early Wednesday morning were on the Democratic side.
The total yet to be counted is weighted toward early and mail-in votes, which leaned Democratic and were a source of strength for John Cavanaugh.
Election workers will separate that ballot from the envelope, make sure that it is the proper ballot for the the envelope because it's a partisan primary, Jensen said.
"On Friday, start counting the ballots in the morning," she said. "We also have provisional (ballots), but I don't have a number on those yet."
An election commission spokesperson said the next round of unofficial results will be released during the late morning or early afternoon on Friday.
Official vote tallies had Powell earning about 39% of votes to Cavanaugh's 37% early Wednesday morning. Douglas County District Court Clerk Crystal Rhoades was third with 14%.
Navy veteran and former federal official Kishla Askins was at 5.8%, and Melanie Williams, a progressive activist, is at 3.8%.
The winner will face Republican Brinker Harding, who ran unopposed.
