Nebraska AG announces investigation of ‘thousands’ of people

LINCOLN — Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said Friday that a statewide investigation continues into the “thousands of signatures” collected on a ballot initiative petition, one step away from bringing them to justice. The critical deadline for signatures to be put on the November ballot is just hours away.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers speaks at a press conference in Lincoln. May 13, 2024.

Hillgers, a Republican, also announced that at least one Grand Island man was hired to collect signatures for an organization. marijuana initiative Criminal charges have been filed. Hilgers opposes legalization Cannabis in any formbut said the timing of his announcement was consistent with the conclusions of part of his investigation, not Signature certification deadline.

“We’ve seen these breaches involving thousands of signatures,” Hilgers told reporters on Friday. “We are still a work in progress and we will have more to say. Today is the secretary’s deadline, but it is not the deadline for us to complete our work.

Signatures do not count “from the beginning”

Hilgers, a former state lawmaker, has also led a statewide campaign against delta-8, which contains THC, the most intoxicating compound in the marijuana plant.

Hall County Elections Commissioner Tracy Overstreet
(Courtesy of Hall County)

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen must decide Friday whether Nebraskans’ medical marijuana petition collects enough valid signatures to be placed on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Evnen said on August 30 that the campaign had temporarily qualified with enough valid signatures. The campaign requires approximately 86,500 signatures as the verification process continues, with 89,000 signatures obtained as of August 30. As of midday Friday, he had not yet decided the fate of the petition.

Hall County Elections Commissioner Tracy Overstreet confirmed to the Nebraska Examiner that the numbers Evan was using at the time did not include numbers for men who had been criminally charged.

She said the emails “were flagged as fraudulent from the outset and were rejected and not included in the total.”

Petition verification continues

Hilgers said “additional violations” are being investigated but did not specify which petition was targeted, how many petitions were being distributed or in which counties.

There are currently six petitions vying for a spot on the Nov. 5 ballot, and Evnen has approved four of them. Three cases successfully overcame legal challenges Friday morning, and medical marijuana is facing its own challenges, including claims against valid signatures.

Hilgers said his findings could mean the new law would not take effect if the petition was placed on the ballot and had enough signatures within that time.

“The integrity of our elections transcends ideology. It transcends policy issues. It transcends political parties,” Hilgers said. “This is about making sure Nebraskans have confidence in our election system.”

On June 10, 2024, Secretary of State Bob Evnen listened to testimony regarding the May 2024 primary election as a member of the State Board of Lobbyists.

The petition pages were submitted to the secretary of state’s office four months before the election and sought to be printed. then local election official Compute and verify signature Under state law, not state officials.

If local officials determine that a signature is invalid, the signature is typically removed from the count, including any other petitions circulating during the cycle. Klein said officers must link any violations to a specific person in order to file charges.

“Petition distributors and voters alike should know and understand that this office, along with all election offices in Nebraska, takes elections and signature verification very seriously,” Overstreet said in a statement. “We are taking this line by line. Go through every petition and sign one by one – just like we sign the early voting envelopes.”

“It doesn’t matter what the petition is”

Hilgers said Nebraskans should have confidence that any fraud or wrongdoing discovered by election or law enforcement officials will be investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted.

He said it was up to Evnen to determine the legal sufficiency of the ballot measure.

When asked if all the other petitions circulating in Nebraska this cycle — those related to abortion, private K-12 school vouchers and paid sick leave — are receiving the same scrutiny “We have a process that applies equally and fairly to everyone,” Si said.

“I can tell you with absolutely 100 percent certainty, no matter what the petition is, if we have evidence of signature fraud, like we have in this case, it absolutely doesn’t matter what the petition is,” Hilgers said.

Hilgers said he and other local officials are on the lookout for fraud, but he was unaware of at least one other violation that had been brought to his office. He warned, “This does not mean that I have blessed the process of any other petition.”

Marijuana Signature Case

Michael K. Egbert, 66, was charged with allegedly collecting at least 200 fraudulent signatures, Hilgers and Hall County Prosecutor Martin Klein announced. Egbert allegedly signed two petitions related to medical marijuana between February 9 and June 30, with 38 signature pages each for marijuana legalization and regulation.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed Thursday, Egbert said in an interview on Aug. 30 that he had been a paid petition circulator, paid by the hour, working primarily in Hall County. Egbert allegedly said at the time that he submitted “well over 100 pages” of signatures.

“In fact, he wrote down the name, looked in the phone book and found the name of the person whose address was in Grand Island, Hall County,” Klein told reporters.

The affidavit accuses Egbert of falsifying false dates of birth and lists up to eight voters who died on each petition.

Hilgers said the number of suspected fraudulent signatures “is not a static, deterministic number.”

Nebraska Medical Marijuana celebrated Signature Day when the organization collected 114,000 signatures on two petitions to legalize and regulate medical marijuana. July 3, 2024.

Egbert is charged with making a false oath to a subpoena on a ballot petition, a fourth-degree felony. Penalties range from probation to up to two years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

The case has been assigned to Judge Arthur S Wetzel. Egbert is scheduled to stand trial on Oct. 2 in Hall County.

Egbert’s attorney, Robert Alexander, who was interviewed by Egbert and local officials on Sept. 10, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the affidavit, Egbert said during that interview that he would not be present and ignore his petition and did not sign his circulator calculator’s oath in the presence of a notary.

Krista Eggers, Nebraska’s statewide campaign manager for medical marijuana, said in a statement that all circulators receive “extensive training.” She thanked Klein and Hilgers for investigating any violations and working to protect the integrity of the public initiative process.

“Circulators are held to extremely high standards and must strictly comply with all legal requirements for collecting signatures,” Eggers said in a statement. “Any circulator who violates the law should be held accountable for their actions.”

Egbert Probable Cause Affidavit

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