More than 13,300 Lincoln petition signatures flagged as fraudulent

LINCOLN — Lancaster County election officials have referred to law enforcement more than 13,300 signatures suspected to be fraudulent on three petitions seeking to reshape Lincoln elections.

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen confirmed that update to the Nebraska Examiner on Thursday afternoon. His office on Wednesday had provided a report to the Lincoln City Clerk’s Office on the Good Government Lincoln campaign’s petition pages.

An Examiner review of those documents, obtained via a public records request, indicated 67.6% of rejected signatures were flagged as being “suspected fraudulent signatures.” The reports do not specify what led local election officials to flag them as fraudulent.

Twenty unique reasons were given for rejection. “Suspected fraudulent signatures” was listed as the most common, followed by voters not being registered in Nebraska (12.1% of the rejections), not being registered in Lincoln (9.9% of rejections), duplicate signatures (2.1%) or a missing signature from a petition line (2.1%).

Campaign applauds election officials

Campaign leaders said late Thursday afternoon that Lincoln officials still had not responded to their own request for the same records, raising questions of fairness. Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird is a chief opponent of the measures.

In a statement, campaign leader Tony Fulton said the campaign supports the referral of potentially fraudulent signatures to law enforcement and the prosecution of the “fraudsters.”

“We take the citizen-led petition process very seriously and appreciate the work the election commissioner did in flagging these irregularities,” Fulton, a former state senator and former state tax commissioner under former Gov. Pete Ricketts, said. “We look forward to getting answers, and in the meantime remain committed to giving voters a voice on these issues for the November ballot.”

Requests for comment to the offices of Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon and Sheriff Terry Wagner went unanswered. The Lincoln Mayor’s Office declined to comment, as did the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.

Sept. 1 deadline

The Lincoln petitioners seek three amendments to Lincoln’s city charter to move the dates of city elections to align with statewide elections, allow certain residents within a few miles of city limits to vote in municipal elections, and place term limits on Lincoln City Council members.

The group needs at least 4,981 valid signatures on each petition. Nearly 10,400 total signatures were validated, leaving each measure short of the goal.

Supporters announced Wednesday they would restart signature gathering.

The deadline for a political subdivision to certify a special issue for inclusion on the Nov. 3 ballot is Sept. 1. In this case, that’s Lincoln and the Lincoln City Council.

2024 petition fraud investigation

This is the second petition campaign to face public allegations of fraudulent behavior in the past two years.

The previous saga began Sept. 12, 2024, when former state Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, a longtime marijuana opponent, filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of two medical cannabis petitions seeking to legalize and regulate medical cannabis. 

Former state Sen. Andrew La Grone, an attorney who is advising the latest campaign, is Kuehn’s lawyer. Jessica Flanagain, a partner with Axiom Strategies and a consultant to Fulton’s group, helped review signatures on Kuehn’s behalf, according to court records.

The following day, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen certified the petitions for the November 2024 ballot. But that same day, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Hall County Attorney Marty Klein announced their offices were jointly investigating “several thousand signatures.” 

They found at least 200 fraudulent signatures before pressing charges, a fraction of the total in the current petition controversy.

The duo announced they had charged Michael K. Egbert of Grand Island with circulator fraud. The following month, prosecutors charged Egbert’s notary, Jacy Todd of York, with two dozen misdemeanors stemming from allegedly improper notarizations. 

Egbert later pleaded guilty to a Class I misdemeanor, down from a Class IV felony, and was fined $250. A jury in February found Todd guilty of one Class I misdemeanor for lying under oath and 23 Class II misdemeanors of “official misconduct.” Todd is appealing. He was assessed nearly $4,000 in fines.

Hall County Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet’s office had caught suspected fraudulent signatures obtained by Egbert and rejected them from the beginning. He admitted having used a phone book to identify and illegally add voters to his pages.

When charges were announced, the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign took a similar approach to Fulton’s and said anyone caught violating the law should be held accountable.

Evnen, whom Hilgers’ office defended in the Kuehn case, essentially joined forces with Kuehn later to challenge tens of thousands of signatures. The primary reasons given were improper circulation of petition pages or improper notarizations.

Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong ruled Nov. 26, 2024, that while some signatures had been improperly gathered and shouldn’t have counted, the campaign still had enough to qualify for the ballot. She disqualified any signatures that Egbert gathered. Voters overwhelmingly approved both proposed laws at the Nov. 5, 2024, election.

Kuehn and Evnen appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which has not yet issued a ruling. Oral arguments were Dec. 3.

‘Same legal firepower’

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has stood by its efforts and continues to push for implementation. On Thursday, the group said that while Hilgers led a large news conference against the medical cannabis campaign two years ago, he is “nowhere to be found now” in a case involving his allies. He is running for reelection and is a client with Axiom Strategies. He served in the Legislature for two years with La Grone and also two years with Kuehn.

“If simple mistakes warranted subpoenas, lawsuits and years of litigation when it came to medical cannabis, surely this warrants the same response,” the medical cannabis group said.

The statement continued: “Unless he [Hilgers] unleashes the same legal firepower against his allies that he used against patients and families, Nebraskans will know the truth: this was never about protecting elections. It was about using public office to overturn the will of the voters.”