OMAHA, Neb.—Organizers of three Nebraska petition drives say they likely won’t gather enough signatures to get their issues on the November ballot, and another petition group is just getting started.
Citizens for a Free Nebraska—which includes some former Elkhorn residents—is suspending their effort on two initiatives. One would prevent annexation of a city without a vote of the residents; the other would let annexed cities regain their independence by a vote of residents within five years of the annexation.
And a drive to let public entities provide telecommunications services, such as broadband Internet access, will also likely fail, said Paul Schumacher of Columbus, who was one of the sponsors.
Meanwhile, FairVoteNebraska is in a race against time.
They’re trying to overturn the new law that moves the State Fair from Lincoln to Grand Island. Organizer Roger Yant says they expect success even though they just filed the petition last week.
“We’ve got lots and lots and lots of people that are ready and anxious to go on it,” Yant said Tuesday. They plan to gather signatures at businesses in Lincoln and Grand Island and at horse races in Lincoln this weekend.
But first they need the final version of the petition.
The petition has been approved and the Secretary of State’s office is working on a camera-ready version that the group can use to make copies and start circulating.
Yant said he knows it’ll be a challenge to get the nearly 60,000 needed signatures from 38 counties by July 16. The group is hoping to raise money to pay circulators.
“It’s not about the reasons that this should not be moved,” Yant said. “This is about giving people a chance to vote yes or no.”
Another petition drive that proposes a constitutional amendment to bar race- and gender-based affirmative action in Nebraska is still under way. Organizer Doug Tietz said he expects to collect enough signatures by the July 4 deadline.
Organizers of both the annexation initiatives and the broadband drive say this isn’t the end of their effort.
Jason Fuller, organizer of the annexation group, said Tuesday they realized they won’t be able to collect the 80,000 signatures needed by the July 4 deadline. They’ve suspended their drives, but plan to restart in July and shoot for the November 2010 ballot.
Omaha’s annexation of Elkhorn last year inspired the group to launch their petition drives. But Fuller said the initiative wasn’t just about Elkhorn. It could apply to Gretna, Waterloo, Valley or any other city, and “a lot can happen between now and 2010.”
Schumacher called the telecommunications drive an attempt at research into how volunteer petition drives work versus paid circulators.
The result? “Basically the answer is, they do not work well at all,” said Schumacher, who has worked with petition drives in the past.
It’s hard to organize, motivate and control volunteers, he said.
Schumacher said he expects a new law regulating petition drives to be challenged in court after it goes into effect this summer.
That law will require circulators to be residents of the state and at least 18 years old. The law will also make it illegal for petition circulators to be paid on a per-signature basis. Backers of the measure said the per-signature payments result in aggressive, even intimidating tactics from circulators.
Those restrictions will make it even tougher for groups to gather enough signatures, Schumacher said.
A group wanting to amend the state constitution must gather about 114,000 signatures—10 percent of the state’s registered voters—to get the issue on the November ballot.
A group wanting to create only a state law needs about 80,000 signatures—7 percent of the state’s registered voters.
And a group trying to overturn a state law needs nearly 60,000 signatures—5 percent of the state’s registered voters.
Each group also must collect signatures from 5 percent of the registered voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.
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On the Net:
Nebraska Secretary of State:
Super Tuesday for Equal Rights:
Citizens for a Free Nebraska:
Voice of Nebraska:
