Initiatives to raise Nebraska’s minimum wage,
require voter ID appear headed for vote in November
Backers of effort to legalize medical cannabis hopeful but not sure it will qualify
LINCOLN — Two well-funded initiative petition drives appear to be headed for a vote in November, while a third — to legalize medical cannabis — looks iffy to gain a place on the ballot. “We’ll know in the next couple of months if we qualify or not,” said State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who co-chaired the signature drive conducted by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. Wishart said the predominantly volunteer effort submitted 93,000 signatures for one of its two petitions, and 91,000 for the other. About 87,000 valid signatures of registered voters are needed to qualify for the ballot. Election officials say that, typically, between 10% and 15% of signatures submitted for such petition drives are deemed invalid after checking. So that makes it uncertain if the marijuana petition drive will qualify. “It’s going to be a photo finish,” said Omaha Sen. Wendy DeBoer, who was among those submitting petitions Thursday afternoon at the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office in downtown Lincoln.
Mad scramble
It was a mad scramble for the medical marijuana group just prior to the deadline as volunteers dug through boxfuls of petitions, which were scattered on the floor outside the election office, to divide them by county and by the two petitions. They crossed their fingers that some petitions from rural Nebraska would also arrive because they must provide a sufficient number of signatures in 38 of the state’s 93 counties. “This is what a grassroots campaign is,” said Crista Eggers of Omaha, the campaign coordinator for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. The cannabis group gathered more than enough signatures in 2020 to qualify for the ballot. But their issue was tossed off the ballot by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled the initiative violated the state’s “single subject” rule. This year, after losing major donors, the medical marijuana effort had to rely primarily on volunteers to circulate its petitions.
State Sen. Julie Slama and other backers of an initiative to require voters to provide identification at the polling place said Thursday they submitted 172,000 signatures to qualify the issue for the November ballot. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
