On February 2, Nebraska bill LB 399 passed the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. It repeals the county distribution requirement for statewide non-presidential independent candidates. It replaces it with a congressional district distribution requirement. The bill makes no change in the total number of signatures needed, 4,000.

The existing law, since 2007, has required 50 signatures from each of one-third of the counties in the state. The bill deletes that and says the petition needs 750 signatures from each of the three U.S. House districts. A lawsuit against the county distribution requirement is pending in federal court, but if the bill passes, that part of the lawsuit will be moot. The same lawsuit also challenges the ban on out-of-state circulators, and of course that part of the lawsuit will continue to be active.