Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center

Reported Voting Issues: Douglas County, Nebraska

About this Report

This report tracks self-reports of voting-related issues including misleading election messages, intimidation, and voter registration problems to help identify areas that may need a closer look. It is part of the broader 2026 Voting Information Trends Research Initiative, which examines how Americans access voting information and understand key election-related topics ahead of the 2026 U.S. elections.

We include counties where at least 50 people responded to our survey. Of 250 such counties, Douglas County ranked 25th highest in reports during this survey period. Findings reflect 403 respondents from Douglas County, Nebraska, surveyed between August 23 and October 26, 2026.

Important Note: This is not a nationally or locally representative sample. Respondents are recruited online, and counties rated higher risk by the Voting Rights Lab are oversampled. Figures are unweighted and reflect only those who responded, not the broader county population. Findings should be interpreted as signals that warrant further attention or verification, rather than as representative estimates or rankings of election administration, election integrity, or the prevalence of voting problems among county residents.

Monitored election problems

ProblemCounts when a respondent reports they…Time window
Registration challenge noticeGot a notice that their voter registration was challenged or canceled, or that they were removed from the rolls.Past month
Conflicting registration informationGot conflicting information about their voter registration.Past week or month
Discouraged from registeringSomeone tried to discourage them from registering or staying registered.Past day, week or month
Misleading calls or textsGot a text, email, message, call or robocall about the 2026 election that felt misleading, coercive or unusual.Past day, week or month
Intimidation or harassmentExperienced or witnessed harassment or intimidation connected with voting or elections.2026 election cycle
Trouble with a voting taskHad trouble registering, checking their registration, or requesting, returning or tracking a mail ballot.2026 election

Table of Contents

Select a name to go to that section.

SectionWhat it shows
Summary of FindingsShare of Douglas County respondents reporting each problem, compared with the Nebraska and national rates
Week by weekWeekly shares for the three problems asked about in the past day or week
Who reported a problemShares by gender, age, household income, race/ethnicity, education and party
Follow-up detailFollow-up answers for each problem reported by more than 10 people
Nebraska overviewThe same measures for all respondents in Nebraska, for comparison
National overviewThe same measures for all respondents nationally, for comparison
About the surveyWhat the survey monitors, how counties are ranked, and limits of the data

Summary of Findings

35.5% of Douglas County respondents (143 of 403) reported at least one of six election problems, compared with 26.5% nationally. Of the monitored problems, misleading calls or texts (23.0% vs. 15.7% nationally) is higher than the national rate by more than the margin of error. Statewide, 31.9% of Nebraska respondents (334 of 1,047) reported at least one problem; the chart shows Douglas County, Nebraska and national rates side by side. Douglas County respondents make up 38.5% of all Nebraska respondents (403 of 1,047) and 0.7% of all respondents nationally (403 of 56,077).

Share reporting each problem, Douglas County, Nebraska

Figure 1. Share of Douglas County, Nebraska respondents reporting each problem, with the Nebraska and national shares, Aug 23–Oct 26, 2026. Douglas County n = 403; Nebraska n = 1,047 (including Douglas County, 38% of the state's respondents); national n = 56,077. Margin of error for the county share reporting any problem: ±4.7 percentage points, so the county figure is higher than the national rate by more than the margin of error. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Week by week

Weekly share reporting each problem, Douglas County, Nebraska

Figure 2. Weekly share of Douglas County, Nebraska respondents reporting each problem (teal line with circles), with Nebraska statewide (red line with squares, including Douglas County) and the national share (black dashed line). The shaded band is the 95% confidence interval for the national share, which is the range the weekly figure could vary based on the sample size alone. Hollow points are weeks with fewer than 10 Douglas County respondents. Weeks start Monday; only problems asked about in the past day or week are shown (conflicting registration information: past week), each person counted once per week. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Weekly groups in Douglas County are small (7 to 133 people), and who answered these questions changes from week to week, so treat week-to-week movement as a signal to watch, not a finding. From Aug 23–Oct 12 to Oct 13–Oct 26, the share of Douglas County respondents reporting any of these three problems went from 16.3% to 21.5% (326 and 121 people): no clear change, since the difference is within the margin of error.

Who reported a problem

Among groups of 30 or more people, reports were most common among people with household income $75,000 to $100,000 (52.4%) and least common among people with household income under $25,000 (22.1%), against 35.5% overall. Reports rose with education.

GroupReportedShare
All respondents143 of 40335.5%
Gender
Female81 of 25132.3%
Male62 of 15240.8%
Age
18 to 247 of 2231.8%
25 to 4466 of 17437.9%
45 to 6446 of 13933.1%
65 and over24 of 6835.3%
Household income
Under 25K21 of 9522.1%
25k to under 50k39 of 11833.1%
50K to under 75K27 of 7536.0%
75K to under 100K22 of 4252.4%
100K and over30 of 6744.8%
GroupReportedShare
Race/ethnicity
White or Caucasian95 of 29032.8%
Black or African American38 of 9440.4%
Hispanic or Latino16 of 3348.5%
Native American or Alaska Native7 of 1936.8%
Asian or Asian American3 of 6–
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian1 of 2–
Other0 of 1–
Education
Some High School or Less0 of 160.0%
High School Graduate26 of 9826.5%
Some College45 of 12336.6%
College Degree58 of 13642.6%
Graduate Degree14 of 3046.7%
Party
Democrat62 of 14144.0%
Republican39 of 9142.9%
Independent/Other42 of 17124.6%

Share reporting at least one of the six problems, by group, Douglas County, Nebraska, Aug 23–Oct 26, 2026. Race/ethnicity is select-all-that-apply, so one person can appear in more than one group. Shares are shown for groups of 10 or more people. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Follow-up detail

Follow-up detail is shown for each problem reported by more than 10 people. Not shown: conflicting registration information (no follow-up question).

Registration notices: who sent the notice

Election office42% (5)
A political party or campaign42% (5)
A private group or organization42% (5)
News or social media17% (2)
Not sure8% (1)
Other8% (1)

Share of the 12 people asked.

Trouble with a voting task, by task

Trouble registering4% (16)
Trouble requesting a mail ballot4% (15)
Trouble tracking a ballot2% (10)
Trouble checking registration2% (9)
Trouble returning a mail ballot2% (9)

Share of the 409 people asked.

Discouraged from registering: who discouraged them

A private group or organization41% (7)
News or social media41% (7)
A political party or campaign29% (5)
Not sure12% (2)
Election office6% (1)
Other6% (1)

Share of the 17 people asked.

Nebraska Overview

August 23 to October 26, 2026. 1,047 respondents across Nebraska, including people whose county is not on file.

31.9% of Nebraska respondents (334 of 1047) reported at least one of six election problems, compared with 26.5% nationally. Of the monitored problems, misleading calls or texts (21.6% vs. 15.7% nationally) is higher than the national rate by more than the margin of error.

Share reporting each problem, Nebraska

Figure 3. Share of Nebraska respondents reporting each problem, with the national share, Aug 23–Oct 26, 2026. Nebraska n = 1047; national n = 56,077. Margin of error for the state share reporting any problem: ±2.8 percentage points, so the state figure is higher than the national rate by more than the margin of error. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Nebraska: Week by week

Weekly share reporting each problem, Nebraska

Figure 4. Weekly share of Nebraska respondents reporting each problem (red line), with the national share (black dashed line). The shaded band is the 95% confidence interval for the national share, which is the range the weekly figure could vary based on the sample size alone. Hollow points are weeks with fewer than 10 Nebraska respondents. Weeks start Monday; only problems asked about in the past day or week are shown (conflicting registration information: past week), each person counted once per week. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Weekly groups in Nebraska are small (21 to 342 people), and who answered these questions changes from week to week, so treat week-to-week movement as a signal to watch, not a finding.

Nebraska: Who reported a problem

Among groups of 30 or more people, reports were most common among Hispanic or Latino respondents (52.2%) and least common among people without a high school diploma (11.4%), against 31.9% overall. Reports rose with education. By race and ethnicity, reports were most common among Hispanic or Latino respondents (52.2%, 36 of 69), 1.7 times the rate among White or Caucasian respondents (30.0%, 258 of 861), a difference larger than the margin of error; Native American or Alaska Native respondents (36.8%) and Black or African American respondents (35.0%) fell in between.

GroupReportedShare
All respondents334 of 104731.9%
Gender
Female205 of 68929.8%
Male129 of 35836.0%
Age
18 to 2420 of 5337.7%
25 to 44152 of 43335.1%
45 to 64107 of 38327.9%
65 and over55 of 17830.9%
Household income
Under 25K67 of 27124.7%
25k to under 50k79 of 29327.0%
50K to under 75K65 of 19333.7%
75K to under 100K47 of 11042.7%
100K and over71 of 17241.3%
GroupReportedShare
Race/ethnicity
White or Caucasian258 of 86130.0%
Black or African American43 of 12335.0%
Hispanic or Latino36 of 6952.2%
Native American or Alaska Native14 of 3836.8%
Asian or Asian American8 of 1553.3%
Other2 of 6–
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian1 of 5–
Education
Some High School or Less5 of 4411.4%
High School Graduate54 of 28319.1%
Some College103 of 30933.3%
College Degree132 of 33339.6%
Graduate Degree40 of 7851.3%
Party
Democrat134 of 32541.2%
Republican104 of 32731.8%
Independent/Other96 of 39524.3%

Share reporting at least one of the six problems, by group, Nebraska, Aug 23–Oct 26, 2026. Race/ethnicity is select-all-that-apply, so one person can appear in more than one group. Shares are shown for groups of 10 or more people. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Nebraska: Follow-up detail

Follow-up detail is shown for each problem reported by more than 10 people. Not shown: conflicting registration information (no follow-up question).

Registration notices: who sent the notice

Election office41% (7)
A political party or campaign35% (6)
A private group or organization29% (5)
News or social media12% (2)
Not sure12% (2)
Other12% (2)

Share of the 17 people asked.

Trouble with a voting task, by task

Trouble registering3% (35)
Trouble requesting a mail ballot3% (27)
Trouble checking registration2% (19)
Trouble returning a mail ballot1% (14)
Trouble tracking a ballot1% (14)

Share of the 1054 people asked.

Discouraged from registering: who discouraged them

News or social media41% (11)
A political party or campaign33% (9)
A private group or organization30% (8)
Other19% (5)
Election office15% (4)
Not sure11% (3)

Share of the 27 people asked.

National Overview

August 23 to October 26, 2026. 56,077 respondents who answered all six questions.

26.5% of respondents (14,861 of 56,077) reported at least one of six election problems. The most common were misleading calls or texts (15.7%) and intimidation or harassment (7.7%); the least common was registration challenge notices (2.5%).

Share of respondents reporting each problem, national

Figure 5. Share of respondents reporting each problem, national, Aug 23–Oct 26, 2026. Each person counted once; bases vary slightly by question (56,077 to 56,446). Margin of error for the national share reporting any problem: ±0.4 percentage points. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

National: Week by week

Weekly share reporting each problem, national

Figure 6. Weekly share of respondents reporting each problem, national. The shaded band is the 95% confidence interval for the national share, which is the range the weekly figure could vary based on the sample size alone. Weeks start Monday; only problems asked about in the past day or week are shown (conflicting registration information: past week), each person counted once per week, so weekly rates are lower than full-period rates. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

Misleading calls or texts went from 6.8% in the week of Aug 31 to 11.8% in the week of Oct 19; being discouraged from registering went from 1.9% in the week of Aug 31 to 2.0% in the week of Oct 19; conflicting registration information went from 2.0% in the week of Aug 31 to 2.1% in the week of Oct 19. Weeks have 2,874 to 16,019 respondents (the first, partial week 388), so the margin of error is narrow except in that first week. From Aug 23–Oct 12 to Oct 13–Oct 26, the share of respondents reporting any of these three problems went from 10.4% to 13.9% (44,992 and 16,011 people): a rise larger than the margin of error.

National: Who reported a problem

Among groups of 200 or more people, reports were most common among people aged 18 to 24 (42.5%) and least common among people 65 and over (19.0%), against 26.5% overall. Reports rose with income and education, and fell with age. By race and ethnicity, reports were most common among Hispanic or Latino respondents (33.6%, 1628 of 4850), 8 points higher than White or Caucasian respondents (25.1%, 10421 of 41451), a difference larger than the margin of error; Asian or Asian American respondents (30.5%), Black or African American respondents (30.2%), Other respondents (30.1%), Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian respondents (29.3%) and Native American or Alaska Native respondents (29.0%) fell in between.

GroupPeopleShare
All respondents56,07726.5%
Gender
Female32,59424.6%
Male23,48329.1%
Age
18 to 243,00042.5%
25 to 4420,21632.0%
45 to 6421,42623.0%
65 and over11,43519.0%
Household income
Under 25K14,92422.3%
25k to under 50k15,84024.7%
50K to under 75K10,77127.8%
75K to under 100K6,12430.5%
100K and over7,82832.6%
GroupPeopleShare
Race/ethnicity
White or Caucasian41,45125.1%
Black or African American9,96630.2%
Hispanic or Latino4,85033.6%
Native American or Alaska Native1,86929.0%
Asian or Asian American1,64830.5%
Other47830.1%
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian31429.3%
Education
Some High School or Less2,60519.1%
High School Graduate17,57423.2%
Some College14,40425.8%
College Degree16,72430.0%
Graduate Degree4,77032.7%
Party
Democrat20,12929.2%
Republican17,07326.4%
Independent/Other18,81423.6%

Share reporting at least one of the six problems, by group, national. Race/ethnicity is select-all-that-apply, so one person can appear in more than one group. Source: CHIP50 survey data.

National: Follow-up detail

Follow-up detail for respondents nationwide who reported each problem. Not shown: conflicting registration information (no follow-up question).

Registration notices: who sent the notice

Election office46% (647)
A political party or campaign28% (394)
News or social media22% (308)
A private group or organization21% (299)
Not sure14% (191)
Other3% (45)

Share of the 1,401 people asked.

Trouble with a voting task, by task

Trouble registering3% (1,789)
Trouble checking registration3% (1,689)
Trouble requesting a mail ballot2% (1,041)
Trouble tracking a ballot2% (1,039)
Trouble returning a mail ballot1% (656)

Share of all 56,446 respondents asked.

Discouraged from registering: who discouraged them

News or social media35% (749)
A political party or campaign32% (684)
A private group or organization27% (584)
Election office25% (544)
Other10% (210)
Not sure10% (206)

Share of the 2,161 people asked.

About the survey

The 2026 Voting Information Trends research Initiative tracks how people get voting information and monitors possible election-related problems reported at the county level. We focus on issues respondents say they have personally experienced or observed, including misleading election communications, intimidation, voter registration problems, and difficulties completing voting-related tasks. The goal is to identify signals that may warrant closer attention.

We survey about 1,000 U.S. adults each day through an online, nonprobability sample covering all 50 states and Washington, D.C. State-level quotas are used for race, ethnicity, age, and gender. We also collect additional responses from selected counties identified as higher risk by the Voting Rights Lab (VRL), whose 2026 risk index considers factors including electoral competitiveness, election laws and procedures, litigation, and concerns involving state and local election actors.

How to read this report

Counties with at least 50 respondents are ranked by the share of unique respondents reporting at least one monitored problem during the data-collection period. We also report results for individual problems, weekly trends, demographic groups, and when sample sizes allow, additional follow-up detail.

Weekly trends are shown only for questions that ask about experiences in the past day or week, and each respondent is counted once per week. Figures include a 95% margin of error based on sample size. We describe a county as higher than the national rate only when the difference is larger than that margin.

When a respondent selects a problem but then states in an optional written follow-up that nothing actually happened, we recode the response as not reporting the problem. These contradictions are identified using a large language model (LLM) assisted coding and reviewed by a member of the research team.

About the data

These results are signals, not estimates of prevalence. The survey is not nationally or locally representative, and results should not be used to estimate how common a problem is in the country or in any county. Figures are unweighted and describe the people who responded. Unlike individual reports found on social media, these responses come from a standardized survey using the same questions and time periods across respondents, allowing us to compare patterns across places and against a national benchmark.

The purpose of the survey is to identify issues that may warrant independent investigation or verification. Election officials, journalists, and other organizations can then assess those reports and respond when appropriate.

Because the data are self-reported, a response does not by itself verify that the reported problem occurred. Respondents may also interpret questions differently from researchers. For example, some reports of “misleading calls or texts” describe campaign messages rather than false voting information, and some registration notices may come from campaigns or advocacy organizations rather than election offices. These findings should therefore be treated as signals of where to look more closely, not counts of verified incidents.

Use of AI in this report

The research team wrote and reviewed the “About the survey” section. The summaries of the results are filled in automatically from templates built with AI. All numbers come directly from the survey data. Automated text can contain errors, so readers should check the summaries against the tables and charts.