Nebraska State Senator William P. Avery (D-Lincoln) has introduced LB 399. It eliminates the county distribution requirement for statewide non-presidential independent petitions. In 2007 the legislature had changed the law for statewide independent candidates (for office other than President), by saying the petition must be signed by at least 50 voters from each of one-third of the 93 counties.
Since the 2007 change, no statewide non-presidential independent has managed to qualify for the ballot. To get at least 50 signatures from each of 31 counties means having to collect signatures from counties in which fewer than 4,000 votes were cast in the last presidential election. A large majority of Nebraska counties have very small populations.
The bill instead requires at least 750 signatures from each of the three U.S. House districts. The constitutionality of the existing law is being challenged in U.S. District Court in Citizens in Charge v Gale, 4:09-cv-3255. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that county distribution requirements for statewide petitions are unconstitutional. Nebraska once had a county distribution requirement for petitions to recognize new parties, but that law, which only required signatures from 19 counties, was declared unconstitutional in 1984 in Libertarian Party of Nebraska v Beermann.