32-1032. County canvassing board; election materials; preservation; duration.
Upon the completion of the canvass by the county canvassing board, all books shall again be sealed, and the election commissioner or county clerk shall keep all election materials, including the ballots-cast containers from each precinct, the sealed envelopes containing the precinct list of registered voters, the precinct sign-in register, the official summary or summaries of votes cast, and the container for early voting materials, for not less than twenty-two months when statewide primary, general, or special elections involve federal offices, candidates, and issues and not less than fifty days for local elections not held in conjunction with a statewide primary, general, or special election. The election commissioner or county clerk shall keep on file one copy of each ballot face used in each precinct of the official partisan, nonpartisan, constitutional amendment, and initiative and referendum ballots, as used for voting, and all election notices used at each primary and general election for twenty-two months. The precinct sign-in register, the record of early voters, and the official summary of votes cast shall be subject to the inspection of any person who may wish to examine the same after the primary, general, or special election. The election commissioner or county clerk shall not allow any other election materials to be inspected, including ballots and provisional ballot envelopes, except when an election is contested or the materials become necessary to be used in evidence in the courts. The election commissioner or county clerk shall direct the destruction of such materials after such time, except that the election commissioner or county clerk may retain materials for the purposes of establishing voter histories.
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Annotations
A county clerk has no right to permit ballots that have been committed to his care and keeping to be taken therefrom, regardless of their value as evidence. Stewart v. Bole, 61 Neb. 193, 85 N.W. 33 (1901).