LINCOLN — Every petition circulating this year had to meet two goals to make it to the ballot, the first requires 5% of registered voters in at least 38 different counties, the other is a total number of signatures, which ranges from 5% to 10% of registered voters depending on the type of petition.
Some petitions fell short.
The EPIC consumption tax initiative, championed by Senator Steve drama, looked to make drastic changes to the state’s tax system by eliminating property, income and corporate taxes
But early Wednesday morning the campaign issued a statement saying that while they made the 38 county requirements, they fell short on the raw number of signatures.
Other petitions were more successful.
Last week the petition to require employers to provide paid sick leave submitted their signatures to the Secretary of State and on Wednesday, supporters and opponents of abortion did the same.
“I stand before you proud to share that we submitted over 207,000 signatures to the Secretary of State to qualify for the November ballot. 207,000 signatures, this is the most successful citizen initiated ballot campaign in our state’s history,” said Ashlei Spivey with Protect our Rights.
Of the three competing abortion petitions, only Protect our Rights and Protect Women and Children gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
That means Nebraskans could vote on whether to enshrine reproductive rights in the Nebraska constitution, or put a first trimester limitation on all abortions. While both can technically get enough votes to pass it will be the initiative with the most total yes votes that will pass into law.
One familiar petition, that has been successful in the past, is looking to make it to the ballot again.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana have been trying since 2019 to get their Medical Cannabis petitions on the ballot. They were successful in 2020 before being removed after a ruling by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
They tried again in 2022 but weren’t able to gather enough signatures.
It was a different story this year and Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana submitted their signatures to the Secretary of State Wednesday afternoon.
