“When I started my job, I never really thought about how it came to be that the election commissioners of counties over 100,000 (people) were appointed by the governor,” Danielle Jensen, today’s Douglas County election commissioner, said, while poring over history books about Dennison at the Omaha Public Library, Central Branch.
The law originally applied only to Douglas County, which, at the time the Honest Election Law passed, was the only county in the state with more than 100,000 people. Lancaster County got its own office in 1947 and Sarpy County joined in the 1990s.
Today, Jensen and her staff at the commissioner’s office work to ensure nothing like what Dennison accomplished back in the day can happen in today’s elections, whether it’s through ensuring sometimes-drafted poll workers of differing parties are overseeing the voting process, rigid voter registration record-keeping, signature and ID verifications and more. She doesn’t think someone like Dennison could pull off election fraud today.
“We have so many checks and balances, so many procedure checks, so many, so many things in place in law,” Jensen said. “I think it’s something that we’re just going to have to learn about and relive through history books. I think it’s important to learn about it so that it doesn’t happen.”
Jensen said election security is not only of paramount importance, it holds a personal significance for her.
“Not only is it our right, it’s our civic duty as American citizens to participate in the process because we’re making decisions about who makes our laws,” Jensen said. “I think it’s almost your duty, and so when someone comes in and messes with that, that taints the entire process. To me, that taints our country. It taints what our founding fathers fought for.”
Dennison stands out as a particularly interesting character to Jensen and Neal. Dennison continued running illegal operations in Omaha, albeit with less control over local elections, until a federal court case forever tarnished his reputation. Dennison died in 1934, and Neal said his funeral procession was one of the longest in Omaha’s recorded history, spanning blocks. Neal said it was a show of love. Jensen sees Dennison as responsible, at least in part, for Nebraska’s election security procedures today.
“It all came about because of Tom Dennison,” Jensen said. “I kind of have him to thank for my job in a long roundabout way.”
Source: nebraskapublicmedia.org
