Nebraska AG says Lincoln must forward charter amendments to Nov. 3 ballot if signature goals are met

LINCOLN — The Nebraska attorney general has waded into a fight in Lincoln over three proposed city charter amendments, opining that if a measure has enough valid signatures, Lincolnites must be given a chance to weigh in this November.

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, in a nonbinding seven-page opinion Monday, said Lincoln officials have a “ministerial duty” to certify otherwise compliant petitioned charter amendments for the ballot and have “no discretion” to implement efforts to exclude them. As an example: multiple rounds of meetings before a final vote to forward the issues to voters.

“While the City of Lincoln may be a home-rule charter city, this does not give city officials license to disobey a direct command of the State Constitution,” Hilgers wrote.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has said Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who oversees statewide petitions, also has certain limits on his authority to reject or certify those issues.

Garret Swanson, a spokesperson for Lincoln, said City Attorney Yohance Christie will meet with city councilors over the next two days to discuss the steps to get an amendment on the ballot.

“After these meetings, City Attorney Christie will make an announcement,” Swanson said.

Good Government Lincoln campaign

Nebraska Constitution Article XI, Section 4, outlines how municipal voters can amend their city charters by petition. This includes signature requirements and a mandate that governing bodies submit qualified amendments at the next general or special election “not held within thirty days after such a petition is filed.” The 30-day buffer is the first weekend of October this year.

However, state law sets slightly different deadlines around certifying issues and the ballot itself.

A political subdivision must certify an issue for inclusion on the November ballot by Sept. 1, which is next Tuesday. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen must certify the ballot by Sept. 11. Certified ballots must be sent to military and overseas voters no later than Sept. 18.

A spokesperson for Hilgers’ office declined to comment on a request to clarify the deadlines.

The Lincoln City Council meets on Mondays. That gives one more chance for officials to certify the issues to go before voters next week, assuming the Sept. 1 deadline.

At center are Good Government Lincoln and its three proposed amendments to the Lincoln City Charter. The issues would limit future Lincoln City Council members to two consecutive four-year terms, move the dates of city elections from odd years to even years and let certain residents within a 3-mile buffer around Lincoln city limits vote in municipal elections, excluding bonds.

‘City may slow-walk the certification’

State Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln requested Hilgers’ latest opinion. Ballard previously worked for Hilgers in the Legislature and assisted his 2022 campaign for attorney general. After that, Gov. Jim Pillen appointed Ballard to Hilgers’ Legislative District 21, beginning in January 2023.

Ballard also proposed a law to expand Lincoln election borders this spring. It did not pass.

Ballard told the Nebraska Examiner in a text Tuesday that he hasn’t yet read Hilgers’ opinion but had requested it because of concerns that Lincoln officials might try to block the measures.

“The city may slow-walk the certification process and not give enough time for the amendments to get on the ballot,” Ballard wrote.

This isn’t the first time that Hilgers has been asked to weigh in on Lincoln action this year. State Sen. Jane Raybould, a Democrat and former Lincoln city councilor, and Ballard asked whether officials could impose a different minimum wage. Hilgers said they can’t. That issue is now in court.

‘Do the right thing’

Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird has been a chief opponent to the proposed amendments, and Lincoln City Council Chair Brodey Weber has also criticized the campaign. Both are Democrats. Weber ran against Hilgers for Legislature in 2020.

Weber told the Examiner that a briefing by the city attorney is the appropriate next step when the state attorney general issues an advisory opinion regarding potential city council action.

As a city councilor, Weber described his role as working with Christie’s office and ensuring “we follow the right steps and we have an appropriate procedure.” He said what now appears as a “rushed process” is because of a lack of “basic safeguards” to prevent alleged fraud the first time petitioners gathered signatures.

“Just because they [Good Government Lincoln] did not handle this situation with the level of care that it required doesn’t mean that the city has to act in a similar fashion,” Weber said. “We are going to do the right thing, and we’re going to follow the process to make sure that we’re upholding the law.”

Campaign sponsors have said they were unaware of any alleged criminal activity and that they support investigation and prosecution of all actors, at every level, who may have been involved.

Ongoing fraud investigation

Good Government Lincoln turned in an initial batch of signatures July 20, but on Aug. 5, the Lancaster County Election Commission said no issue had enough valid signatures. More than 65% of signatures were rejected, a supermajority of those flagged as possibly fraudulent.

Each petition needs at least 4,981 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Law enforcement arrested six out-of-state circulators and is searching for a seventh, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said last week. The first defendant appeared in court Monday. The county fraud investigation has expanded to all statewide ballot measures, too.

Good Government Lincoln submitted more signatures Aug. 19. No valid signatures from before will count toward the campaign’s restarted valid signature count.

Axiom Strategies, a multistate consulting firm that some of the highest-ranking Republicans in Nebraska hire to run their campaigns, including Hilgers, is assisting Good Government Lincoln.

A spokesperson for Hilgers’ office told 10/11 News in Lincoln earlier this month that at the beginning of the investigation, the chief and chief deputy of the office’s criminal bureau “were given full decision-making authority and operational oversight over the Lincoln investigation.”

Signature verification

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen confirmed Monday that the city council term-limits measure has enough valid signatures. Of 8,082 petition lines reviewed, 5,628 signatures were valid. That’s a validity rate of 69.6%.

An additional 116 petition pages, which could contain as many as 2,320 signatures, were not reviewed. Verification ended early once the campaign exceeded 110% of its signature goal.

Wiltgen’s office is continuing signature verification for the measure to change municipal election dates and then the measure to expand municipal election boundaries.

In a statement Monday, former state Sen. Tony Fulton, a sponsor of the Lincoln petitions, said his group was “pleased” the first charter amendment has qualified for the ballot.

“Voters are excited for a say on these initiatives in November,” said Fulton, who was tax commissioner under former Gov. Pete Ricketts. “Thank you to the Lancaster County election commissioner for the quick work in verifying the signatures.”

The general election is Nov. 3.