Nebraska AG alleges thousands of invalid signatures on pot ballot petitions, with 1 man charged

Nebraska’s Republican attorney general said Friday that supporters of two measures to legalize medical marijuana could have submitted at least “several thousand” invalid signatures to get them on the ballot, suggesting that the issue ultimately could keep the proposals from becoming law.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers made the statement during a Zoom news conference with a local prosecutor to announce a felony charge against a petition circulator from Grand Island over fraudulent signatures on 38 pages for the two separate initiatives.

While Hilgers and the local prosecutor said the alleged fraud was “localized,” the attorney general added that an investigation of the pro-marijuana petitions uncovered other irregularities implicating many other signatures. Hilger said his office’s investigation is still open and if it finds enough invalid signatures, the courts could remove them from the ballot, block the counting of votes for them or, if the measures pass, invalidate the new laws.

The attorney general’s announcement came on the last day for the secretary of state’s office to certify the initiatives for the November ballot. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Bob Evnen said he would respond later Friday.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-parsely-url=«https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parsely.com%2Fv2%2Frelated%3Fapikey%3Dapnews.com%26url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fnebraska-marijuana-petition-signature-fraud-ca8a3fdf879d8cb3775ec5bb810b0191%26limit%3D9%26respect_empty_results%3D1%26sort%3D_score%26pub_date_start%3D2024-07-30%26exclude%3Dsection%3APress%20Releases%26exclude%3Dtags%3ACelebrity%20Birthdays»