On February 28, the Nebraska legislature advanced LB 399, without opposition. This is the bill that eases the statewide non-presidential independent petition distribution requirement. Current law requires 50 signatures from each of 30 counties. In effect, this requires 30 separate petitions, all of which must succeed. The bill eliminates the county distribution requirement and substitutes a requirement that the petition must have 750 signatures from each of the three U.S. House districts.

The bill has no effect on the total number of signatures required, which is 4,000 signatures.

The legislature’s specific action on February 28 was to “advance the bill to enrollment and review for engrossment”, which in most states is called second reading.