In 2015, the Nebraska legislature passed LD 874, an omnibus election law bill that vastly increased the petition requirements for independent congressional candidates, to 10% of the number of registered voters. The old requirement had been 2,000 signatures until 2007, and then 4,000 signatures between 2007 and 2015. The calculation of the number of registered voters is the total on the deadline, so an independent candidate can’t even know exactly how many signatures he or she needs until after the deadline.
The new law is obviously unconstitutional. All petition requirements in excess of 5% that have ever been challenged in court have been invalidated. This includes instances from Arkansas, Illinois, and North Carolina. There is no U.S. Senate election in Nebraska this year, but if there were, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate would need 117,802 valid signatures. Nebraska has three U.S. House seats, and this year an independent for U.S. House in the average district would need 39,267 valid signatures.
How many OBEY or DIE orders from the Donkey/Elephant HQs in Devil City to de facto wipe out all third parties and independents from getting ballot access ???
It’s too bad no independent candidate for Congress sued Nebraska over this. Probably the law will be altered next year; otherwise a lawsuit is virtually guaranteed.