Nebraska petitions on abortion, sick leave, medical marijuana initiatives submitted on deadline

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – Several petitions were submitted to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday.

Signatures for nearly all petitions active in the state were due at 3 p.m.; the latest “school choice” referendum petition is due at 5 p.m. July 17.

Now in the hands of the state, officials will work to verify that all submitted signatures are valid. Those that aren’t will be tossed, with the remaining total dictating whether enough signatures were collected to earn the initiative a place on Nebraska ballots in November.

Organizers confirmed with 6 News that not enough signatures were collected to put forward a proposed amendment on excise taxes or a grocery exemption from consumption tax.

A petition looking to add a succinct statement about cannabis to the state constitution also failed; “All persons have the right to use all plants in the genus Cannabis,” won’t be appearing in that document.

Two medical marijuana petitions — with 114,367 signatures collected for the one to allow purchasing by patients and 114,596 on the one seeking to allow businesses to sell such products — were turned in on Wednesday. The138,000 signatures on the petition to require paid sick leave for employees of all businesses in the state was submitted on June 27.

There were also two conflicting abortion petitions turned in: Anti-abortion petitioners told 6 News they collected 205,344 signatures, while pro-choice petitioners said they had submitted 207,608 signatures. Should both be verified to appear on the ballot, the one receiving the most “yes” votes in the election will become law.

“Today is a historic day. Our initiative has submitted more signatures than any ballot measure in Nebraska’s history. It’s clear that Nebraskans believe that patients, families, and doctors should be in charge of making their most personal healthcare decisions when pregnant about abortion, not politicians. Hundreds of people volunteered, and the enthusiasm was palpable. I know Nebraskans are ready to vote to protect their rights in November.”

A related petition to grant personhood to a fetus did not receive enough signatures to appear on the ballot. There was also a petition circulated that would allow for a ban on surgical and pharmaceutical abortions with an exception for those instances when the pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the mother, but not enough signatures were collected for it to move forward.

REQUIREMENTS

In order to appear on state ballots, initiative petitions must have signatures from at least 7% of registered Nebraska voters — according to the total pulled by the state on Friday — at the time of the filing deadline. Petitions seeking to add an amendment to the state constitution must collect signatures from at least 10% of registered voters; referendum petitions aiming to repeal a law require 5%.

All petitions must contain signatures from voters in at least 5% of registered Nebraska voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.

VERIFICATION

County election offices will have 40 days to verify signatures collected from their counties, checking that those who signed are a registered voter, and that they provided their correct address, date of birth, and signature. They will also invalidate any duplicate signatures.

“It will take several weeks to verify signatures,” Wednesda’s release from the Secretary of State’s office says.

Nebraska’s November ballot must be certified by Sept. 13.

Read the petitions

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News Director Cassie Crowe, Assistant News Director Katherine Bjoraas, Digital Director Gina Dvorak, and Reporter Johan Marin contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story contained an inaccurate submission date for one of the petitions. 6 News regrets the error.

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