Single-subject complaint filed against ‘Respect Nebraska Voters’ ballot measure

LINCOLN — Nebraska’s top elections official will decide whether a ballot measure seeking to make it harder for Nebraska legislators to amend voter-approved laws is too broad for the November ballot.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen confirmed Monday he has been asked to weigh the fate of the Respect Nebraska Voters measure. State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, a Democrat, and former state Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson, a Republican, filed the objection. They served together in the Legislature for four years, between 2019 and 2023.

The pair argue the measure contains at least two subjects and violates a Nebraska Constitution limit that any voter-passed laws or constitutional amendments be on one related subject.

“I just feel that it’s not right and that the Legislature always has to retain some authority to make changes, even on things I don’t like them changing,” Friesen said Monday.

A campaign spokesperson, in a statement Monday, said the ballot language was “carefully drafted and thoroughly reviewed” to conform with constitutional requirements, so the challenge as “not unexpected, but it is disappointing.”

“This is another effort by a few politicians to undermine the will of voters who want to strengthen protections for our state’s ballot initiative process and ensure that when Nebraskans make a decision at the ballot box, politicians respect it,” the statement read.

Proposal specifics

The proposal seeks to amend the Nebraska Constitution to increase the threshold for lawmakers to amend or overturn voter-approved laws from 33 of 49 state lawmakers (66%) to 40 of 49 (80%). Additionally, only laws that facilitate and “safeguard” voter-approved statutes and “advance a compelling state interest by the least restrictive means” would be valid.

The change applies to any voter-approved law dating to 2004 — minimum wage, Medicaid expansion, caps on payday loans, casino gambling, medical cannabis and paid sick leave.

The campaign launched after lawmakers scaled back voter-approved paid sick leave promised for most workers and just before legislators slowed voter-approved increases to the state minimum wage. Lawmakers supporting the laws cited economic reasons for their action.

Laws making it harder to run statewide initiative and referendum petitions would be invalid, too. Those powers are reserved in the Nebraska Constitution.

County election officials have not yet finished validating petition signatures for the measure, but if election officials confirm at least 138,473 valid signatures, the measure qualifies for the ballot. Evnen gets the initial determination of whether the Cavanaugh-Friesen objection has merit. 

The secretary noted the deadline to certify the ballot, Sept. 11, “is rapidly approaching.”

“I will likely be announcing my decision on whether the petition meets the single-subject requirements before the validation is entirely complete in order to ensure that deadline can be met,” Evnen said in a statement.

‘Cut both ways’

Friesen, on Monday, and Cavanaugh in the past have said lawmakers have a hard enough time getting 33 votes, the same number needed to overcome filibusters. Friesen served in the Legislature for eight years. Cavanaugh is in her eighth year and will be term-limited come January. Friesen said it makes sense to leave the rules about ballot measures the same because the single-subject requirement for ballot measures also complicates what language can go before voters.

Most ballot measures, he said, likely need tweaking after passage.

“Whether it’s a rural or urban issue, I mean, it’s going to cut both ways someday,” Friesen said.

He noted that he would love to see a ballot measure about property taxes, for instance, but the rule requires ballot language to be compact. If it can’t be refined by lawmakers, that complicates future legislation.

“If you’re forbidding them from going in and dealing with this issue, I just don’t see how you could have passed something good enough in a ballot initiative to satisfy the need to fix the problem,” Friesen said.

State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln had said in December 2025 that she was unsure whether the Respect Nebraska Voters petition was a single subject, according to reporting from 10/11 in Lincoln.

Jo Giles, executive director of the Women’s Fund of Omaha and a sponsor of the group, said then that she believed the group’s petition was OK because the focus was increasing the votes needed for any changes involving ballot initiatives.

“We wouldn’t be here today if lawmakers were actually working together to support the will of the people,” Giles said July 2 when supporters turned in signatures.

No matter Evnen’s decision, the final say could come from the Nebraska Supreme Court. The general election is Nov. 3.