Pillen, Evnen, county election officials call for changes to Nebraska petition circulator laws

LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, Secretary of State Bob Evnen and multiple county election officials are calling for changes to petitioning in the state amid multiple investigations of possibly fraudulent signatures statewide.

Evnen said petitioners submitted about 767,000 signatures for review across 17 separate petitions this year. That includes 85,000 petition pages, each one of which can have no more than 20 signatures. The petitions included statewide ballot measures, Lincoln City Charter amendments and nonpartisan or partisan candidates for the Nov. 3 ballot.

Of the petitions, election officials in at least Lancaster County and Hall County caught and forwarded thousands of signatures suspected to be fraudulent to authorities. As of Aug. 19, six out-of-state circulators had been arrested, and law enforcement was searching for a seventh.

County law enforcement officers are actively reviewing signatures across at least eight 2026 petitions. 

Evnen couldn’t confirm whether more petitions or campaigns are under investigation because of the ongoing criminal investigation. He described attempted fraud as a “despicable act.”

“We caught the signature fraud. This is not an accident,” Evnen said. “This is the result of the hard work and dedication of our county election officials and the hard work and dedication of the people in the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office.”

‘Open to suggestions’

Hall County Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet hearkened back to 2024, when her office also flagged wrong dates of birth, wrong addresses, misspelled names and bad signatures on two medical cannabis petitions. Some purported signers, law enforcement said at the time, were deceased.

A Grand Island circulator pleaded guilty to having used an old phone book to add names. A jury this spring convicted a York notary for improper notarizations on the circulator’s petition pages. The notary is appealing his convictions.

This election cycle, Overstreet said, her office again flagged possibly fraudulent signatures.

“The bottom line here is that Nebraska’s system works,” Overstreet said. “It was, and it is, successful in identifying fraudulent signatures, which are then not counted toward the thresholds that need to be met to put measures on the ballot.”

Overstreet cautioned that while the process works, it comes at a cost to taxpayers, as county officials put in extra hours while petition supporters want a quick answer. 

Overstreet and Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen are co-chairs of an Election Law Committee for a statewide association of all 93 county clerks, registers of deeds and election commissioners. Overstreet said the association is discussing possible improvements to signature gathering.

“Our association is pledging to work closely with the Governor’s Office, the Secretary of State’s Office, the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and the full Unicameral in making our gold standard election system even better,” Overstreet said.

Overstreet said whether to reform the notary process, to combat situations like that in 2024, has not come up in conversation, though a possible registry of petition circulators, similar to one for notary publics, has come up. Evnen said the role of sponsors in oversight will be part of discussions.

“We’re open to suggestions for all improvements,” Overstreet said.

‘Essential firewall’

Election officials in other states might verify a small sample of signatures, Evnen said, but in the Cornhusker State, signatures are reviewed line by line, by hand, until enough are verified according to state law.

The process includes verifying a signer’s name, date of birth and address with their information on file. If that information checks out, the voter’s signature is also cross-referenced.

Wiltgen and his office flagged more than 13,300 signatures as possibly fraudulent on three petitions seeking to amend the Lincoln City Charter this year. The Good Government Lincoln campaign has said it supports Wiltgen’s work and his referral to law enforcement. The group restarted its efforts and submitted more signatures.

Wiltgen said all presumption is given toward a signature being valid, Wiltgen said, but there are multiple steps in checking, including for signature characteristics alone.

Pillen described the county process as an “essential firewall” achieved through a “robust, multilayered verification framework that we all need to be proud of.” At the “heart,” he said, are local officials.

Ending ‘bounty signatures’

Pillen and Evnen repeated their call Thursday to prohibit paying circulators per signature. Such a ban existed between July 2008 and August 2015. A bipartisan group of lawmakers approved that law, overriding a veto from former Gov. Dave Heineman, but seven years later, a different group of lawmakers reversed it, with no opposition, under then-Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Former state Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln, a longtime, powerful Democrat in the Legislature who also chaired the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, ushered in the 2008 ban. Pillen said she “got it right.”

“The process of bounty signature gathering is sabotaging legitimate petition initiative efforts. It’s as simple as that,” Pillen said. “It’s not the Nebraska way.”

Pillen joked that the “only place” Nebraskans should be hearing the word “bounties” is on the radio and TV Western drama “Gunsmoke.”

The first petition campaigns that could again pay per signature, and which later went to voters, were those seeking to opt Nebraska into Medicaid expansion statewide and locally amend the Lincoln City Charter to place term limits on the Lincoln mayor, each in 2018. Both passed.

Other suggested reforms

Evnen said he is also working on legislation that would restrict circulators to U.S. citizens and nonfelons and require that prospective circulators complete training detailing their job and responsibilities. Circulators would also need to affirmatively consent to the laws of Nebraska.

In addition to legislation, Pillen said there needs to be a cultural shift where petitioners “prioritize genuine voter engagement over raw volume” of signatures.

“I’m a believer that the people speak as the second house in Nebraska,” Pillen said. “I believe the people speak when we come together without being coerced by money.”

Evnen’s office has in the past also suggested moving up the petition deadline and expanding the time for officials to review signatures. But he said he hasn’t given further thought to that idea and expects technology will become more accurate and more cost effective in the future, too.

For now, Evnen said, “we’ll stick with what we have” with physical verification.

“Nebraskans once again owe a debt of gratitude to our counties because they do this heavy lifting, and they do it very, very well,” Evnen said. “They’re dedicated, responsible people who are highly competent in their work, and they’re the ones who give Nebraskans the elections that they can be proud of.”

‘Few bad apples’

Former state Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, who is challenging Pillen’s reelection under the America First Party ballot line, told the Nebraska Examiner that the reforms Evnen outlined “seem prudent.” His early nonpartisan bid for governor this summer went down in smoke, in part due to overlapping petition circulators who law enforcement say submitted fraudulent signatures.

Lindstrom was one of the 42 of 49 lawmakers who reversed the pay-per-signature ban in 2015. He said he learned firsthand how that could backfire.

“The vast majority of people I don’t think are out there trying to scam,” Lindstrom said. “But a few bad apples ruin the bunch, and you had this ripe for fraud.”

Lindstrom reiterated that he will be pursuing legal action because of how his nonpartisan bid ended.

Former state Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont, Pillen’s Democratic challenger, said in a statement that the suspected fraud this year is a “historic attack” on Nebraskans’ right to govern themselves. She said that can’t go unanswered and is calling on Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers to appoint a special prosecutor.

“Governor Pillen has spent two years trying to block and override what Nebraska voters have already decided, and now he wants to use this fraud as cover to make the citizen ballot initiative process harder to use,” Walz said. “The people in Nebraska expect answers.”

‘False implications and phony innuendos’

While not giving specifics, Evnen used his time Thursday to push back on what he described as people “running around our state doing everything they can to make Nebraskans feel worried and unsure and uncertain about our elections.”

“They don’t have facts or evidence, so they’re peddling false implications and phony innuendos. It’s shameful what they’re doing,” Evnen said. “No state runs better elections than Nebraska. No state runs elections that are more secure and accurate than we do.”

Asked to clarify what he meant, Evnen said a “litany of things” regarding elections are being repeated statewide, including those he said his office has examined and found no validity. He did not give examples.

“We’re not vulnerable to these things, and yet they continue to get repeated,” Evnen said.

Evnen had been running for a third four-year term until May, when he lost the Republican primary to Scott Petersen of Omaha, who specifically criticized Evnen and has called for more significant changes to the administration of Nebraska elections.

Also running for Evnen’s seat are Democrat Sarah Slattery of Plattsmouth, Paul Rumbaugh of Omaha for the Nebraska Working People Party and former state Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha for the America First Party. Evnen has not endorsed anyone in the race.

Pillen repeated that election integrity is “about Nebraska” and that every Nebraskan should know that when they get out to vote, their voice will be heard with confidence in the outcome.

“We will continue to ensure that our ballots remain secure, transparent and driven strictly by Nebraskans,” Pillen said.

The general election is Nov. 3.