Nebraska State Senator Justin Wayne (D-Omaha) has introduced LB 969. It lowers the number of signatures for non-presidential independent candidates for statewide office to 4,000, and the number for U.S. House independents to 2,000.
Current law requires 10% of the number of registered voters, which for statewide office this year would be approximately 130,000 signatures. No one can know the exact number because it is based on the registration data as of the time the petition is submitted. Such petitions are not due until September 1. If anyone did comply with the existing law, probably the state would be hard-pressed to check the signatures in time. The existing requirements were created in 2016. Before 2016, they were also 4,000 for statewide office, and 2,000 for US House.
Senator Wayne is an attorney, so he is probably aware that the 2016 law created unconstitutionally difficult requirements. Thanks to Mark Elworth for the news of the bill.
One more UNEQUAL ballot access test —
regardless of ALL of the JUNK SCOTUS cases since 1968.
ANY lawyer who can detect the EQUAL in 14 Amdt, Sec. 1 ???
Will they change it for presidential ballot access as well?
There is no problem with the current law for president. It is 2,500 signatures.
Senator Wayne is an attorney, so he is probably an idiot.
The 2016 change made the petition for all partisan offices 10%. LB 969 restores the 20% of the top-line vote for partisan county and political subdivision offices, that it was before 2016, but also splits the requirements into subsections.
Nebraska should adopt Top 2 for all offices, and move the primary to September. When you have multiple paths to the ballot, it is impossible to harmonize.
Incidentally, the reason the presidential requirements were not raised is because they are in a different section.
Who are the super-idiots in so-called law skoools who give law degrees to those idiot so-called attorneys ???
Special idiot law degrees for later SCOTUS off-the-scale super-duper idiots ???