§ 32-815 — General election ballot; partisan candidates; placement and rotation of names

(1) The names of candidates for each partisan elective office
shall be arranged on the ballot of the general election so that the political
party polling the highest number of votes at the last general election for
Governor will have the name of its nominee immediately beneath the name of
the office for which the candidate was nominated, the political party polling
the second highest number of votes will have the second place, the political
party having the third highest number of votes will have the third place,
and continuing with the political parties in descending order of number of
votes, leaving those candidates whose names appear upon the ballot by petition
to appear beneath all other candidates placed there by nomination. For each
office for which there are more candidates than vacancies and there are two
or more nominees of the same political party, the election commissioner or
county clerk shall rotate the names of such candidates on the official ballot.
In printing the ballots for the various election districts, the positions
of the names shall be changed in each office division for each election district.
In making the change of position, the printer shall take the line of type
at the head of each division and place it at the bottom of that division,
shoving up the column so that the name that was second shall be first after
the change.
(2) The name of the person receiving the highest number of
votes at a primary election as the candidate of a political party for an office
shall be placed on the official ballot except as otherwise provided in the
Election Act. Except as provided in section 32-811 for
automatically nominated candidates, no person shall be certified
as a candidate of any political party for such office by the Secretary of
State, election commissioner, or county clerk unless the person receives a
number of votes at least equal to five percent of the total ballots cast at
the primary election by registered voters affiliated with that political party
in the district which the office serves and meets the requirements for the
office.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 1994, LB 76, § 236; Laws 1997, LB 764, § 78; Laws 1999, LB 571, § 6; Laws 2014, LB56, § 3. Annotations: A write-in candidate, who receives the requisite number of votes cast by a political party at a primary election, is the nominee of that party. State ex rel. Driscoll v. Swanson, 127 Neb. 715, 256 N.W. 872 (1934). Before a person can be the nominee of any political party, such person must receive the requisite number of votes cast by that party at the primary election. State ex rel. Dickinson v. Sheldon, 80 Neb. 4, 113 N.W. 802 (1907).