Lawmakers rejected a last-minute amendment Thursday to keep Lincoln city elections in off years, rather than allowing city officials to tie them to statewide elections.

Robert Prevost was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. Nebraska leaders reacted to the historic news.

Robert Prevost was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV. Sign up for our NewslettersHe is a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops.

After years in prison, a Nebraska man voted for the first time Tuesday, casting a ballot more than two decades after he lost his right to vote in 1995.

A Nebraska bill may let the Omaha and Lincoln city councils put their election dates on the ballot. Voters could choose to elect local officials at the same time as they pick a president.

The General Election ballot includes a proposal to ban housing discrimination based on a renter’s or buyer’s source of income. Incumbents Bennie Shobe, Tom Beckius, and Sändra Washington are seeking reelection. While the race is officially nonpartisan, all three have been endorsed by Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, a Democrat.

Three Democratic incumbents on the officially nonpartisan Lincoln City Council kept their challengers at bay Tuesday.

City Council incumbents Sändra Washington, Tom Beckius and Bennie Shobe — all Democrats — won re-election in Tuesday's general election.

THE OMAHA CITY ELECTION IS ONE WEEK FROM TOMORROW. THANKS FOR JOINING US. I’M ROB MCCARTNEY. I’M JULIE CORNELL MAYOR JEAN STOTHERT WAS THE CLEAR VOTE LEADER AFTER OMAHA’S PRIMARY, BUT DATA SHOWS IT WAS HER WORST PRIMARY PERFORMANCE IN 12 YEARS.

Lincoln and Omaha city officials would have the future option to move city elections and line them up with Nebraska statewide elections, under this year’s annual election cleanup

The proposal passed with around 66% of the vote in Lincoln's general election, as of Tuesday night's final result release.