LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – Two of the four counts in a Lancaster County lawsuit challenging the two medical marijuana petitions have been allowed to proceed.
Judge Susan Strong issued her order on Friday afternoon, confirming the latest medical marijuana petitions had cleared the “single-subject” hurdle that was the undoing of a similar push in 2020.
Additionally, the allegations that the petition didn’t contain enough information about one of its sponsors, State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, were tossed “with prejudice.”
The lawsuit had argued that Wishart failed to provide her city, state, and ZIP code in the form, but the judge noted that the other two sponsors had provided all of that information; that all three provided email addresses and phone numbers; and that Wishart had signed the form, which was notarized.
But two counts disputing the petition signatures and alleging that Secretary of State Bob Evnen failed to strike duplicate signatures were allowed to proceed.
“We are grateful for Judge Strong’s decision to dismiss the single subject and sponsor sufficiency claims against our ballot initiatives today. The signature challenge remains, and we will continue to exercise all legal options,” said Crista Eggers, with Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, in a statement Friday afternoon.
The plaintiff, John Kuehn, argued that numerous signatures on the submitted petitions were invalid — signed by non-registered voters, were missing addresses, had mismatched dates of birth, and other related allegations — and should not have been accepted by Evnen.
Judge Strong noted in her order that precedent dictated some clerical and technical errors could be disregarded if that information could be inferred from other evidence in the petition, such as the date it as signed. But she also noted that it was important to determine whether the alleged errors fell into that category, and allowed the two counts on signature disputes to proceed to arguments.
Eggers said she was sure the state’s scrutiny on the petitions would hold up.
“We have complete confidence that our local election officials correctly and accurately validated the petition signatures, and that our campaign met all legal requirements to appear on the ballot. We remain focused on making sure all Nebraskans have their voice heard on this issue.”
Judge Strong also allowed a cross-claim filed by Evnen, which addressed the petitions submitted by a circulator now facing charges in Hall County, to advance.
If passed by voters in November, one ballot initiative would allow patients to purchase medical marijuana and the other would allow businesses to sell it.
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Two of the four counts in a Lancaster County lawsuit challenging the two medical marijuana petitions have been allowed to proceed. Read More