Nebraska's Delayed Ballot Signature Review: How Does This Affect Cannabis Legalization In The State?

Crista Eggers, leader of an initiative that would allow Nebraskans to vote on legalizing medical cannabis, recently expressed her "absolute disgust" that state officials have yet to complete a final review of petition signatures.

“Our campaign should have been shown the decency to complete this process without your own assumptions,” Eggers wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R). “Our right to explore possible challenges was taken from us, as you have now run out the clock on us.”

Moreover, Eggers said that Nebraskans for MMJ have not yet received a final determination on whether it came close to submitting the required number of signatures and, because of that, has now lost the ability to legally defy the count, reported Marijuana Moment.

State law requires groups to object to a count within 10 days of submitting their signatures, a time period that has already expired. In addition, the counting of additional signatures has not yet been completed, but officials said it will be completed soon.

What Happened:

The medical marijuana group was told on August 22 that it had not submitted enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. It failed to collect the necessary valid signatures from 86,776 voters and failed to meet another requirement: gathering at least 5 percent of registered voters in 38 of the state's 93 counties for its two petitions.

However, days after the Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) failed to submit enough valid signatures to place two medical marijuana initiatives on the November ballot, officials agreed to revisit the matter.

Eggers, whose son suffers from frequent seizures and requires medical marijuana treatments, said that despite the failure, the effort to legalize cannabis for medicine will continue. “The talks are happening right now about refiling language and moving forward,” she said.

However, polling showed that Nebraskans solidly support legalizing marijuana for medical use.
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