LINCOLN — Last year you were probably asked to sign many petitions.
Whether it was paid sick leave or the three abortion petitions there was a lot for Nebraskans to sign.
“Because we have a one house legislature we need the second house, the people, and we need the opportunity to speak with petitions and other ways,” said Shirley Neimeir, a opponent of a new legislative bill 604.
Many of those petitions, including abortion and medical marijuana went through court challenges before making it to the ballot.
A new bill, LB604, looks to give opponents more time to sue.
“Given the time, effort and expense undertaken by Nebraskans to put items on the ballot, it is only common sense that we increase access to Nebraskans to the court process,” said Jared Storm, the lawmaker who introduced 604.
Storm’s bill would open up petitions to lawsuits before they have even started collecting signatures. He argues its necessary to give courts time to consider the lawsuits but opponents say it could handicap any petition that is facing a well funded opposition.
“What does that do to the campaign of people looking to collect signatures? They can’t pay for signature collection because they are paying lawyers to fight the lawsuit,” said Spike Eicholt, who testified in opposition on behalf of the ACLU of Nebraska.
If 604 doesn’t pass, another constitutional amendment, LR23CA, is looking to adjust the timetable of initiatives, this time in regards to signature submission.
Currently petitioners have until four months before an election to submit signatures, if LR23CA passed that deadline will be pushed back to 16 months before an election.
Opponents argued though that the timeline would confuse voters who are signing petitions that wouldn’t be voted on for almost two years and potentially gives lawmakers time to defeat petitions with legislation before voters even get a chance to cast a ballot.
“It would potentially open up the process to the legislature changing pieces of underlying law that could essentially derail the initiative process that have already been duly qualified,” said Ken Smith with Nebraska Appleseed.
