Medical marijuana sponsors boycott Nebraska officials
LINCOLN — Sponsors of Nebraska’s medical marijuana ballot measure are pushing back against the state’s chief elections official’s challenge to nearly 100,000 signatures, which they say threatens “the rights of the entire initiative.”
Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed court papers challenging the validity of two medical marijuana petitions with about 49,000 signatures each. More than half, they claimed, involved “notary malfeasance.” Evnen asked the court to determine the actual number of valid signatures and invalidate the election results if there were insufficient signatures.
Lawyers for three sponsors of Nebraska medical marijuana groups said Monday that Evan is not alleging any “willful misconduct” as required by law and “in an attempt to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Nebraska voters.” In the process, it ignores past legal precedent.
“To make matters worse, Nebraska’s top election official has proposed a burden-shifting framework that threatens to undermine and completely eliminate the initiative’s entitlements,” the sponsors’ brief states.
Litigation Timeline
On September 13, Evnen confirmed two of the campaign’s measures – legalizing and regulating drugs for medical use – on the November 5 ballot. Evnen confirmed there are nearly 90,000 valid signatures on each cannabis petition. The campaign requires at least 86,499 valid signatures. Early voting has begun.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evening. September 13, 2024.
On Sept. 12, former state Sen. John Kuehn, a former member of the state Board of Health, filed a lawsuit challenging the legal sufficiency of the ballot measure. Kuhn named Evnen and three campaign sponsors in the lawsuit.
Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong allowed Evnen and Kuehn to file their complaint go ahead It also narrowed the scope of Kuehn’s lawsuit to about 17,000 signatures on each petition to define “clerical and technical errors” rather than actual invalid conduct.
On the same day Evnen certified the November ballots, Hilgers announced a statewide investigation into fraud, malfeasance and “irregularities” specifically regarding marijuana petitions.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Hall County Prosecutor Marty Klein hosted a news conference charging a Grand Island man with collecting fraudulent signatures on a medical marijuana petition. September 13, 2024.
As a result of the investigation, a paid circulation clerk in Grand Island and a notary in York have been charged. Hilgers said in a legal filing last week that more charges may be filed and specifically implicated 10 additional circulation clerks or notaries, including one ballot sponsor.
There are four other measures on the Nov. 5 ballot, but Hilgers announced an investigation into just the medical marijuana measure.
Secretary of State’s responsibilities
In a brief supporting Evnen, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office argued that the legal concept of “standpoint” — whether a case is contested or even proceeds in court — “allows courts and litigants to stay on the right footing.” On track”.
Hilgers and his office echoed Kuhn’s attorney’s argument that if a measure is legally or constitutionally inadequate, Evan’s mandate changes. Hilgers’ office continued that any uncertainty would “impede the Secretary from properly executing and managing these responsibilities.”
“Concluding that the Secretary of State lacks standing would inappropriately limit his ability to discharge his constitutional duties and enforce the requirements of election law,” the brief states.
John Kuhn (left) of Heartwell looks at his Austin-based attorney Anne Marie McGinn in Lancaster County District Court. September 20, 2024.
Kuhn and his attorneys defended Effnan’s ability to file revised claims against ballot sponsors, noting Nebraska Constitution’s Section on Citizen-Led Petitions.
Kuhn’s attorneys wrote that the Constitution is “self-executing” and that no state law can alter or impede Avnen’s constitutional authority to prevent certification of a legally deficient ballot measure. If Avnan gets new information, which they say includes Hilgers’ investigation, the constitution requires Avnan to take action.
“This obligation is clearly a legitimate interest of the subject of this litigation,” Kuhn’s brief states.
If Judge Strong rejects Evening’s claim for lack of “qualification,” Kuhn’s attorneys are asking to be allowed to add the challenged signatures to his batch of challenges.
“Precious initiative”
Lawyers for the ballot sponsors argue that a Nebraska court has never invalidated a petition signature due to an alleged error by a third-party notary. They point out that the Nebraska Supreme Court did allow in 1919 Invalid signature Based on widespread circulation fraud, the case was never extended to notaries.
“It makes no sense to penalize voters for alleged errors that occurred after they signed a petition, for which they had no responsibility or control,” attorneys for the ballot sponsors wrote.
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.
The attorneys argued that Evnen’s contention was that “one mistake — regardless of the cause — amounted to pervasive fraud.”
They argued that Evnen was not entitled to such a “bulk invalidation” remedy under any state law or regulation and that Evnen’s role was to verify the signature requirements and certify the election results before taking action on the ballots.
In their arguments, attorneys for the sponsors pointed to a 2022 North Dakota case in which the secretary of state invalidated 15,740 otherwise valid signatures because they came from a certain notary public. The North Dakota Supreme Court overturned the lawsuit and declined to invalidate more petitions.
“Part of safeguarding a valuable initiative is ensuring that political opponents do not bury voters in legal bills based on platitudes of technical errors,” attorneys for the ballot sponsors said. “This is especially true when the political opponent is the state’s top election official. – He has endorsed the move he is now attacking.”
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