LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – A lawsuit challenging two medical marijuana petitions has been filed in Lancaster County.
The lawsuit, filed just before 3 p.m. Thursday — a day before the deadline to certify the measures for the November ballot — alleges the petitions are insufficient for many reasons.
The plaintiff, John Kuehn, says in the lawsuit that he requested to obtain and review the petition signatures from Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen. According to the lawsuit, Evnen partially granted the request by allowing signature inspections from Douglas, Sarpy, and Lancaster counties — but left out 20 other counties.
Kuehn is also arguing that numerous signatures are invalid — signed by non-registered voters, were missing addresses, had mismatched dates of birth, and other related allegations — and were accepted by Evnen unlawfully.
At nearly the exact same time the lawsuit was filed, Attorney General Mike Hilgers sent a notice out to media about a news conference he’s planning to conduct Friday morning, saying “petition signature verification uncovered falsification of voter signatures in the petition process.”
Both sides of the medical marijuana legalization debate were preparing legal arguments Thursday in anticipation of the Evnen’s certification of two ballot initiatives.
If passed by voters, one initiative would allow patients to purchase medical marijuana and another would allow businesses to sell it. It would give the son of Crista Egger, campaign manager for Nebraskans For Medical Marijuana — and all the other families who have been pushing for legalization for years — another treatment option available here in Nebraska. Colton Eggers, a fourth-grader, suffers from severe epileptic seizures where the only options available now in Nebraska are several pharmaceuticals with plenty of side effects.
On Aug. 30, Bob Evnen’s office that both medical marijuana ballot initiatives were expected to appear on Nebraska ballots in November, saying that the petitions had not yet been certified but had met the signature requirements. County election offices were expected to continue verifying the remaining signatures until the state hits its 110% verified signature threshold for each of the petitions.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana turned in more than 114,000 signatures on July 3 for each of their initiatives, surpassing the 86,499 that were needed. So far, the state has confirmed more than 89,000 valid signatures for each petition and had met the 5% requirement for at least 51 counties — 13 more than required.
The push for two initiatives came after the Nebraska Supreme Court decided medical marijuana wasn’t elligible to appear on the 2020 ballot because it violated the state’s “single-subject rule” — and issue that has come before the court a few times.
Just last week, the court heard similar arguments regarding one of the abortion initiatives as well as an item on school vouchers, both set to appear on the November ballot.
In July, the state’s high court sided with state Attorney General Mike Hilgers, upholding a gender-affirming care and abortion law as a single subject.
Read the medical marijuana complaint
—
Assistant News Editor Katherine Bjoraas, reporters Brian Mastre and Philip Catalfamo, and Digital Director Gina Dvorak contributed to this report.
—
Get the latest breaking news updates delivered to your inbox. Sign up for 6 News email alerts.
Copyright 2024 WOWT. All rights reserved.
A lawsuit challenging two medical marijuana petitions has been filed in Lancaster County. Read More