Medical cannabis ballot measures remain in question with early voting underway
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen filed a complaint disputing the validity of 49,000 petition signatures.

The validity of many of the petition signatures that put two medical cannabis measures on Nebraska’s Nov. 5 ballot is under question as a lawsuit in the matter makes its way through court, with early voting already underway.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen on Sept. 13 certified that supporters of the measures had gathered enough signatures to put the issues on the ballot: one that would allow the use of medical cannabis and one that would regulate its sale and distribution.
But Evnen recently filed a complaint in Lancaster County District Court questioning the validity of about 49,000 of the approximately 118,000 signatures — about 42% — on each petition due to what it said were problems with the public notaries who validated the signatures.
“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 in support of the legalization petition,” Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers wrote on Evnen’s behalf in the filing.
Even though the medical cannabis questions remain on the ballot, the results of voting could be invalidated by the court.
To get an initiative petition on the ballot, supporters must gather signatures from at least 7% of registered Nebraska voters (about 86,500) — including from at least 5% of voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.
Hilgers and local prosecutors have launched an investigation to look at how signatures were gathered.
Evnen’s filing was submitted in response to a lawsuit challenging the medical cannabis petitions. The lawsuit was filed by former Republican state Sen. John Kuehn, the co-chair of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a national organization that opposes marijuana legalization.
The lawsuit alleges procedural problems with the signature-gathering process for the petitions and the unlawful preemption of federal laws dealing with marijuana use, among other issues.
Crista Eggers, the campaign manager for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, assailed Evnen’s filing.
“We are appalled by the state of Nebraska and its elected officials who are willing to stop at nothing to deprive Nebraskans of the chance to vote on compassionate access to medical cannabis for suffering patients,” Eggers said in an email to the Nebraska Independent. “The secretary of state 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. 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. We will not back down, and will continue to advocate for patients in this state as well as those who have been fighting alongside.”
Evnen’s court filing alleges fraud or malfeasance in many of the petitions that were circulated. For example, Hilgers alleges that three public notaries illegally acted as both notary and circulator. He also alleges that at least six notarized petitions outside the presence of the circulators.
No matter how the judge rules in the Kuehn case, the decision is expected to be appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court.