Nebraska Officials Say There’s ‘Serious Doubt’ About Medical Marijuana Ballot Signatures

“Nebraskans should be outraged that the state is trying to toss aside the will of the people, by using power, money and intimidation.”

By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner

Nebraska’s chief election official and top prosecutor have questioned the validity of more than half of the signatures already validated on each of the state’s two medical cannabis petitions for the November election.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R), in a legal filing Friday on behalf of Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R), told a Lancaster County District Court judge that an ongoing investigation “casts serious doubt regarding the ultimate validity of approximately 49,000 signatures” on two medical cannabis petitions.

“In the aggregate, the petition circulator fraud and notary malfeasance described taints—strips the presumption of validity—from tens of thousands of submitted signatures submitted by the Sponsors,” Hilgers wrote.

Early voting has already begun on whether to regulate and legalize the drug for medical purposes. Hilgers and Evnen are asking the court to determine the true number of “valid” signatures and void the election results if there aren’t enough.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said in a statement: “It is appalling that the State of Nebraska is working to silence and disenfranchise the voices of tens of thousands of Nebraskans based on primarily unsubstantiated technical issues.”

The statement continued: “These issues have absolutely nothing to do with the more than 115,000 voters who signed each of these petitions, or the dedicated patients and Nebraska citizens who worked hard to get the issue on the ballot.”

Allegations of fraud and ‘malfeasance’

The filing alleges that fraud or malfeasance has been uncovered in petitions circulated in 72 of the state’s 93 counties. That includes Hall County, where a paid petition circulator from Grand Island and a notary from York have been criminally charged for alleged wrongdoing on the petitions.

Some of the new examples Hilgers’s office alleges are that three notaries served as both notary and circulator on an undisclosed number of petitions and that at least six notaries notarized petitions outside the presence of the circulator who gathered the signatures.

Eight notaries are named for alleged “malfeasant behavior,” including one from York. If all signatures were tossed from these notaries, it would invalidate approximately 49,058 signatures on the legalization petition, and a similar amount on the regulatory one.

The filing alleges at least four circulators, in addition to the Grand Island man, engaged in fraud, though the filing doesn’t explain how. In total, the filing states this would call into doubt about 656 signatures on the legalization petition and a similar amount on the regulatory one.

Hilgers wrote that the burden of proof in proving the signatures are valid should fall to the three ballot sponsors to “affirmatively” show the signatures were legitimately collected.

“When there is evidence of fraud or malfeasance, the signatures or petition pages associated with the circulator or notary who engaged in the fraudulent or malfeasant behavior lose the presumption of validity,” Hilgers’ office wrote.

More criminal charges possible

In this case, Hilgers’s office seeks to go further than a 1919 Nebraska Supreme Court case dealing with an anti-woman-suffrage referendum that allowed all signatures tied to a circulator who had committed fraud to be tossed from the ballot, defeating the anti-suffrage effort.

A 1992 Nebraska Attorney General’s Office opinion, which doesn’t carry the same weight as a judicial ruling, suggested the same standard could be applied to notaries.

Evnen’s office declined to comment while the case is pending. Attorneys for the ballot sponsors did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 30 individuals are alleged in the filing to have committed wrongdoing or suspicious activity such as high signature rejection rates, in addition to the two men already charged. The investigation includes one sponsor, Crista Eggers, who is the campaign manager and executive director of the nonprofit Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis, a group of patients, caregivers and advocates.

As of Monday, no county attorney or the Attorney General’s Office had announced new criminal charges against any petition circulator or notary related to the cannabis petitions.

Some information from the investigation has been forwarded to local law enforcement and “additional criminal charges may be forthcoming,” according to the filing.

This is the campaign’s third attempt. The Nebraska Supreme Court blocked the first attempt from the ballot in 2020. The campaign failed to collect enough signatures in 2022.

This year, six petitions will appear on the November 5 ballot. Hilgers and Evnen have announced only an investigation into the two measures related to medical cannabis.

Underlying lawsuit is ongoing

Evnen’s involvement in the lawsuit came because a former state senator and former State Board of Health member, John Kuehn, sued Evnen and the three sponsors of the ballot measures organized under Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.

District Judge Susan Strong set Friday as the deadline for Evnen and Kuehn to file a list of signatures they wished to challenge. Strong allowed the Kuehn lawsuit to continue to determine what are “clerical and technical errors” and what could invalidate a signature.

While Kuehn is suing Evnen, the two “having aligned on sufficient issues” submitted a joint filing last week with a suggestion of how the case should proceed, wrapping up before Election Day.

Strong directed the ballot sponsors to respond to the challenged signatures and Evnen’s lawsuit by Wednesday.

A bench trial is set to begin Octtober 29, one week before Election Day. The case is likely to be appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, no matter the outcome.

Kuehn’s lead attorney, Andrew LaGrone, a former state senator, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Evnen’s new filing.

Evnen on September 13 had announced the medical cannabis campaign had qualified nearly 89,000 signatures from more than 5 percent of voters in 52 counties on each of its petitions. The campaign needs at least 86,499 valid signatures.

‘It is both sickening and wrong’

Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis criticized Nebraska officials as “willing to stop at nothing to deprive Nebraskans of the chance to vote on compassionate access to medical cannabis for suffering patients.”

The nonprofit criticized Evnen, saying he “names and attacks patients and caregivers who have been tirelessly fighting for access for over a decade—based on alleged notary mistakes on a handful of petitions.”

For example, Eggers organized on behalf of her son, who has epilepsy and severe seizures, and many other circulators and notaries are patients themselves or are doing so for family.

“It is both sickening and wrong to go after individuals who have given everything to this fight. Nebraskans should be outraged that the state is trying to toss aside the will of the people, by using power, money and intimidation,” the nonprofit said. “We will not back down and will continue to advocate for patients in this state as well as those who have been fighting alongside.”

This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.

Florida Senator Sues State Over Anti-Marijuana Ad, Alleging Unconstitutional Use Of Taxpayer Dollars Ahead Of Legalization Vote