Nebraska voter ID petition drive enlists help of Gov. Ricketts for last-minute push

LINCOLN — A group seeking to place a voter ID initiative on the November ballot announced Wednesday that it has enlisted Gov. Pete Ricketts to help round up last-minute signatures for the effort.

 Citizens for Voter ID, which has been primarily financed by Ricketts’ mother, Marlene, said it will hold a series of town hall meetings next week in eastern Nebraska featuring the Republican governor.

“These town halls will be a great opportunity not only to hear how the petition effort for voter ID is going, but how voter ID will enhance, secure, and protect election integrity,” said State Sen. Julie Slama, who is a named sponsor of the petition drive.

July 7 deadline

Citizens for Voter ID did not respond to a request by the Nebraska Examiner on Wednesday to indicate how many signatures it had collected so far. It will need to submit valid signatures of 10% of the registered voters in the state — about 124,000 — by the July 7 deadline to qualify the proposed constitutional amendment for the November ballot.

The proposal would require voters to present “valid photographic identification” in order to vote. Thirty-five states have laws requiring voters to show some form of ID at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

 A spokeswoman for the voter ID group said that additional petition circulators had been hired recently to help gather sufficient signatures and that the effort was “on track” to qualify.

Complaints about circulators

Last month, the Nebraska Examiner reported that both a current and former state senator had complained about paid, voter ID petition circulators misrepresenting what the initiative would do and misidentifying themselves as “state employees.” 

John Cartier, the voting rights director for Civic Nebraska, said that if the issue the petition effort  is “integrity,” it should focus on the “fraud” committed by  voter ID petition circulators.

Cartier said his group has gathered 10 signed affidavits from people seeking to have their names removed from the voter ID petition because they were misled. An official with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office said Wednesday that it had received five such affidavits.

Citizens for Voter ID has billed its initiative as “protecting Nebraska’s election integrity.” After the complaints surfaced, Slama pledged to investigate and take appropriate action against any circulators acting inappropriately.

Not a problem

Cartier said that the initiative is addressing a problem that doesn’t exist because “voter impersonation” is so rare.

“Measures like this serve to disenfranchise people for no real reason, except it sounds good on the campaign trail,” he said.  

Secretary of State Bob Evnen has said that he supports voter ID requirements, but he has also said he found no evidence of fraudulent votes cast in the 2020 election.

Campaign spending reports, submitted by Citizens for Voter ID in November 2021, indicated that it has collected $377,000 in donations: $376,000 from Marlene Ricketts and $1,000 from former Omaha Mayor and U.S. Rep. Hal Daub.

The voter ID town halls are scheduled: 

Tuesday: 10 a.m., LA Fire Proof Door, Fremont; 2:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, Wayne.

Thursday, June 30: 9 a.m., Arbor Bank, Nebraska City; 1 p.m., Vintage Venue, Beatrice; 3:30 p.m., Holthus Convention Center, York.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the number of signatures needed to place the measure on the general election ballot.