LINCOLN (AP) — A federal judge will be asked Monday to block a Nebraska law requiring all petition circulators to be electors of the state.
The request for a preliminary injunction against the 2008 law was part of a lawsuit filed in December in U.S. District Court over Nebraska's petition signature requirements for ballot initiatives and independent candidates. A hearing on the request is set for Monday in Omaha.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing on behalf of two men and a nonprofit organization, Citizens in Charge Foundation Inc., aiming to expand the ballot initiative and referendum process. The men suing are Michael Groene of North Platte, a frequent petition signature gatherer for ballot initiatives, and Donald Sluti of Kearney, who has said the requirements make it impossible for him to gather enough signatures to appear on the Nebraska ballot as an independent candidate.
The ACLU says changes made in 2007 and 2008 to state law are keeping independent candidates and ballot initiatives off the ballot, violating protected political speech.
The changes increased the number of petition signatures required for independent candidates to get on the ballot from 2,000 signatures to 4,000 — with at least 50 of those signatures coming from at least one-third — or 31 — of Nebraska's 93 counties.
A change in 2008 requires all petition circulators to be electors of the state of Nebraska, meaning they must live in the state and be 18 years old by the time of the November election in the year they gather signatures. That law will be weighed at Monday's hearing.
Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale, whose office oversees state elections and who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, has defended the state's requirements and said he has every confidence that the court will uphold them as constitutional.
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