Nebraska Governor Signs Bill Lowering Number of Signatures for Independent Candidates

On May 17, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts signed LB 411. It lowers the number of signatures for non-presidential independents from 10% of the registered voters, to 4,000 for statewide office and 2,000 for U.S. House. LB 411 is an omnibus election law bill with many other provisions.

This bill passed because the old 10% petition requirement had been invalidated in federal court last year. In court, the state had conceded that the old law was unconstitutional. The new requirements just enacted match the same requirements that had existed until they had been raised in 2016.


Comments

Nebraska Governor Signs Bill Lowering Number of Signatures for Independent Candidates — 11 Comments

  1. This is good news for the Nebraska One Party, Nebraska has lowered the number of signatures required for Congress to 2000 signatures.

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  2. Good news! It is now about the same as West Virginia’s for Congress and about 40% lower for statewide. Interesting since our state’s populations are similar (Nebraska at 1.9 mil and WV at 1.8):
    2020 WV petition requirements:
    U.S. President – 7131 signatures
    U.S. Senate – 4537 signatures
    U.S. House, 1st District – 1983 signatures
    U.S. House, 2nd District – 2048 signatures
    U.S. House, 3rd District – 1750 signatures
    Governor – 7139 signatures
    Secretary of State – 6915 signatures
    Auditor – 6598 signatures
    Treasurer – 6716 signatures
    Commissioner of Agriculture – 6643 signatures
    Attorney General – 6942 signatures

  3. EQUAL requirements for ALL candidates for the SAME office in the SAME election area ???

    If NOT, then more 14-1 EPC violations.

  4. LB 411 is an omnibus election bill, 63 pages long and around 20,000 words.

    The petition requirement for nonpartisan offices is 10%. It makes sense because Nebraska uses Top 2 for nonpartisan offices, and the petition is designed as a contingency in case only one candidate qualifies, or if a candidate dies or withdraws.

    Legislation in 2011 eliminated some county distribution requirements. This was particularly notable for statewide offices, since a county distribution was replaced with a congressional district distribution requirement.

    The 2016 change was part of a bill that nominally dealt with school board vacancies. The change for partisan offices, consolidated the petition change for all offices. For county offices it reduced the petition requirement from 20% to 10% but eliminated some caps.

    LB 411 restores the 20% barrier.

    If Nebraska would eliminate partisan nominations, all the complexities would disappear, since all candidstes would qualify in a like matter.

  5. Nebraska’s so-called non-partisan Legislature is in fact just as partisan as any other. Just as with any other Top Two system, a minority of voters gets to winnow the field in the primary which effectively restricts the choices of voters who only participate in the general election. Of the twenty-four seats on the ballot in November five were not contested and four had two candidates of the same party, not counting the 32nd District which had a Republican versus a former Republican.

  6. What USA/State/Local LAW is NOT *partisan* ???

    PR – partisan Legis
    AppV – NON-partisan Exec/Judic

  7. Nebraska does not use top-two for any elections. “Top-two” was coined by the Washington state media in 2004, to mean a system with party labels. That term had never existed before 2004. We have had non-partisan elections for centuries and no one ever called a non-partisan election a “top-two system” in all those years.

  8. @RW,

    Before Minneapolis adopted STV, it used a system where the two candidates who received the most votes in the primary advanced to the general election. The candidates had party labels. This system was the same as used in Washington. Do you claim that it was not a Top 2 election because the term had not been coined yet?

  9. WAS THERE A DARK AGE (AFTER THE END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE) BEFORE IT WAS NAMED THE DARK AGE ???

    IE – LOTS OF HISTORY STUFF GETS A NAME LONG AFTER THE STUFF STARTED/HAPPENED/ENDED.

  10. @DR,

    I think that The Enlightenment would be a more apt simile to Top 2.

  11. @CP,

    You missed the point.

    If you eliminate segregated partisan nominations, you don’t have to have different standards for ballot qualification.

    If you look at the 2018 primary results where there were two candidates, the results were not dissimilar From the general election. That is, those who eschewed from the primary did not notably vary from the rest of the electorate.

    When at a steak restaurant, some will order corn flakes, but that number will not vary much if it is lunch or dinner. If you take corn flakes off the dinner menu, choice is not really restricted.

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