5,000 signatures verified for 1 of 3 Good Government Lincoln charter amendments

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen announced Monday that he has verified over 5,000 signatures for a petition seeking to put term limits on Lincoln City Council members.

That’s one of three proposed charter amendments that backers hope will alter Lincoln elections. Those petitions initially failed to meet the required amount of signatures due to more than 13,000 of them suspected of being fraudulent.

For this second round, 5,628 were verified for the petition hoping to add term limits for the city council. Around 2,400 signatures were rejected by Wiltgen’s office.

To have the necessary amount of signatures, a charter amendment petition requires 5% of registered voters in the previous governor’s race – roughly 5,000.

All signatures need to be verified by Wiltgen’s office by Sept. 1 in order to appear on the November ballot.

This second time around Good Government Lincoln submitted 27,000 total signatures for all three petitions.

During the first go round, seven paid circulators were arrested in connection to the suspected fraud. The circulators charged were connected with the On the Ballot, LLC, which is connected to Vanguard Field Strategies, a subsidiary of Axiom Strategies.

Axiom and GOP consultants are tied to the Good Government Lincoln group, with three of its employees – Jessica Flanagain, Daniel Bass and Zoe Ganzman – listed as sponsors.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, Lancaster County Attorney and Nebraska Attorney General’s office are investigating potential signature fraud in the three former Lincoln petitions alongside four statewide petitions.

Former state tax commissioner and state Sen. Tony Fulton is behind the effort.

The second petition aims to expand voting to certain residents outside of Lincoln for some elections. Those targeted residents live in Lincoln’s “extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction,” which is the three-mile area surrounding the city.

The other petition seeks to realign the timing of city elections with statewide elections. That alignment of elections would begin in 2028.

“We are pleased the first of the proposed charter amendments has been certified,” Fulton said in a statement. “Voters are excited for a say on these initiatives in November. Thank you to the Lancaster County Election Commissioner for the quick work in verifying the signatures.”